Chapter 1, Children Today Speak Up

What did you think of this chapter? Did you feel as if your own childhood was sheltered and you lived in a world of fun and fantasy? Do you look at today's children, shake your head, and cry out, "Oh, if only we could go back to the way it was. Things were so nice back when I was little."

Or, was your childhood experience a little different? Do realize that no time in history has ever been perfect, and children have always needed the love of God, the security the church can and should bring to their lives, and the knowledge that someone hears them when they speak up.

As you read this chapter, what, if anything, leaps out at you? Heusser and Heusser write, "Today's children do not live in a secure world of fun and fantasy. They live with the reality of the world before them daily. They are continuously exposed to its harshness."

It's been said that this is a change that took place during the Vietnam War, when the daily death counts were given on the news and war was played out in our living rooms for the very first time. Media has changed our exposure to the world. As has the increase in single parent households, children being raised by people other than their parents, and children left unattended while their parents are at work.

Heusser and Heusser speak of the technological world, but they wrote their book prior to the computers we know today, the World Wide Web at our fingertips, and cell phones in our pockets. Anything that children want to know, they google or bing. They don't have to whisper in the hallways at school or hope that their big brothers and sisters will tell them. They can find out for themselves. And you can bet that they're not googling questions about how God loves them or when Jesus fed 5000 people on a hillside.

Pay close attention to the questions asked by the authors. They may give you some important insight.

And page 11 brings up essential info regarding the need for love. The authors write, with regards to negative influences, "The force of these events can be lessened if a child feels the security that comes from receiving love and care. this sense of personal security and worth develops as the child is held and touched, talked with and listened to, and cared for tenderly."

How many children in our world are not receiving this personal security and worth? How many children in our churches are not feeling listened to, not feeling that tender care? And how easily can we reach out to them with openness, tenderness, love, compassion?

Many children's lives have been changed because of the influence of one person. Perhaps that person will be you.

May the strength of the Spirit flow within your veins this day.

Tamalyn