Allies For The Children

A teacher asked her students to list what they thought were the present Seven Wonders of the World. The students cast the most votes for 1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids 2. Taj Mahal 3. Grand Canyon 4. Panama Canal 5. Empire State Building 6. St. Peter’s Basilica 7. China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not turned in her paper yet. She asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many."

The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help." The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are: 1. To see 2. To hear 3. To touch 4. To taste 5. To feel 6. To laugh 7. To love.

Children have this tremendous ability to make us stop and think, don’t they? Sometimes their statements stop us in our tracks and make us reconsider a course of action or our views on an issue. Their poignant insights create questions in our mind that force us to stop and think.

Children also create a great deal of questions for us as parents, grandparents, other family members, as well as caring adults. Their actions leave us wondering from time to time, “Why in the world does my child leave his clothes all over the room and yet has all of his Transformer’s collection in perfect order? Why are her dolls so neat and clean and in perfect order on the shelves and yet a trail of chaos and disorder seems to follow her everywhere? ”

The way that some are treated also create why questions in many people’s minds. Questions such as:

Why did you give all the energy to kids?

Why do people who can least support children (in all ways) always have so many and they are neglected?

Why would God make them [children] endure suffering when they are so innocent and pure? Why wouldn’t he give them chances to experience life to the fullest so that they can make our world better? He created those children, so shouldn’t he keep them safe too?

Why do some women actually choose to kill their unborn babies and it seems like God does nothing to stop this practice?

Heavy questions. Sharp questions. Unsettling questions, aren’t they? Perhaps we find some of these questions rather judgmental and harsh in tone. But, they are questions that have been asked in response to the question that I have asked for this series, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?”

Does the Bible have any answers to these questions? Let’s find out.

Question number 1, “Why did you give all the energy to kids?”

Good question! A former parishioner once told me that her doctor said that if an adult were to duplicate the exact movements and actions of a toddler in the course of one day, that adult, no matter how fit, would probably die from the exertion!

Kids have incredible energy. Boys, probably because of testosterone seem to have more and a look at the 2nd and 3rd grade camp last Monday afternoon at YCL would have proved it. As Susan, Daniel, and I left Jonathon at camp, we noticed that all the boys were running and jumping and throwing balls to one another while the girls were sitting down in a circle talking to one another. Granted there are exceptions to this view but the difference was striking.

A former seminary professor, Don Joy, has said, “Good biology is good theology” as he explained for many years to the development of little boys and little girls from conception through puberty that God put in place as His human development plan.

But energy, tremendous energy, is common to both little boys and little girls! Why do they seem to have it all?

Now the Bible does not specifically address this issue as to why kids seem to have all the energy, but it does address the issue of raising children in a responsible and God-honoring way in several Old and New Testament passages.

One important and revealing passage is Proverbs 1:8 and 9, “Listen, my child, to what your father teaches you. Don’t neglect your mother’s teaching. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and clothe you with honor.”

I think that we can correctly assume that part of what fathers and mothers are to teach their children is how to use wisely their energy in the correct way and for the right reasons. Now wisdom as defined in the Bible is more than smart thinking. Wisdom has to do with our entire character and one way we demonstrate a wise life is that we use our time and energy wisely. A good upbringing is one way that our energy is connected to wisdom and a life crowned with grace and clothed with honor shows good use of energy throughout a person’s lifetime.