Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Should Our Children Know God?

God loves all children
All children should know the love of God.
In my own personal quest to become the ultimate male channel surfer, I paused just for a moment on the 6 o'clock news. The lead story involved a police raid on a high school where numerous weapons had been seized. These weapons included guns, knives, chains, and even axes.

It is very important to understand that these deadly weapons were confiscated from kids ranging in ages from 14 to 17. I couldn't help but ask myself the question - Why would a 14 or 15-year-old kid want to carry a gun or an axe to school?

I was forced to continue in my surfing quest, but I could not get that news story out of my mind. I couldn't come up with any logical answers, but there were many questions and I was immediately reminded of Columbine, the school in Kentucky and all the other schools where kids had been murdered for no obvious reason.

Were these children born with the DNA for violence or was it just learned behavior? In my work in the area of domestic violence, I know there are children who are forced to witness violent behavior in their homes on a daily basis. Could the exposure to constant violence and then being told to stay quiet cause these kids to attempt to make their emotions known by using violence themselves?

Where did they get the guns in the first place? A 14 or 15 year old cannot buy a gun, so it must have been brought from home. Why would any responsible parent leave a deadly weapon in clear view and reach of a child? Some parents seem to be just too excited about the day when they can finally teach their son or daughter to shoot a gun and go out and kill something.

Most children are given free reign of the video games and parents seem to feel no responsibility for actually knowing what a specific game involves or the impression that game may have on their child. In doing some research on this issue, I found an interesting article on MSNBC, written by its game editor, Kristin Kalning, December 2006:
"Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention."
I have personally seen television grow from entertainment and family based programming to an epidemic of violence, with each new show trying to draw the best audience by increasing the violent content. Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General had this to say about violence in television:
"This lecture started off with a definition of an epidemic as being "the occurrence of case or cases of an illness beyond what we might expect based on past experience". Television violence qualifies."
In an article published by the American Psychological Association, these comments were presented in regard to both violent television and video games:
"Furthermore, violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor, say the researchers."
If you are a parent, you already know that kids are like sponges, soaking up everything they see or hear and doing their best to imitate both.

It would seem that children born into violence in their homes, who watch violence on television, play violent video games, and experience violent situations even at school would have no choice other than to focus their thoughts and energy on violence. How could they think of anything else?

Many children are never exposed to any type of religious belief in their early years. Could teaching these children and their parents about a loving God make a difference in their lives? How can a parent spend $50.00 or more on a video game and not buy a copy of the Holy Bible because the price is too high? Where's the logic?

Instead of allowing the television and video games to babysit our children, why can't we try a different approach? I have found that children enjoy hearing the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Jonah, and many other stories found in the Bible. It not only gives them an introduction to faith and love, but it also lets them know that killing is not the only fun thing to do.

We, as parents, want our children to like us and we will often make decisions based on our popularity rather than our best judgment. Being a father of four, I can make that comment with no reservations.

The Bible charges us with a responsibility to our children in Ephesians, Chapter 6, and verse 4:
"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
We all live very busy lives in building and supporting lifestyles and sometimes our children just get left out and are forced to get their education of life from other sources. Teaching our children about God and the importance He should have in our lives doesn't take a lot of time and we must always have time for our kids.

The world will only teach our kids about violence and hate, but the word of God will teach them about love, respect and caring; your choice.

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