11 Ways to Protect Our Kids

No one goes into parenting to raise a killer. We hold those tiny feet, let little finger wrap around our index, quietly dreaming in the recesses of our minds of Homecoming princesses, athlete’s, super genius’…

But never killers.

And are killers really all that different. Born of that same heart of sin before regeneration, same tender mold-able clay laying before their parents that tender day in the hospital.

A sweet impressionable infants, destined to become something, someone, sure to change lives either one way or another.

This past week, someone’s son did the unthinkable, premeditated a plot to take numerous guns and kill nine other people.

Reports say He demanded a prostrated people to stand one at a time. Then, he asked if they were Christians. The ones that said, “yes” got shot in the head.

And who declares war on college students? Who has the right to rob life in a country that was founded on Biblical principles?

In incidences of murder and destroying the innocent, don’t we need more than a pope to stand on our land, but a Savior resurrected in our hearts?

And where are the parents of these lost ones, opening fire in a movie theater, or church, or college campus?

How can we assure our children, aren’t pulled apart by the lies that tell them, “fame might come if you just grab a gun and do the unthinkable.”

I stand in a line to get Starbucks. A young man waits behind me. My wiggling toddler tells me she is tired of sitting. The counter clears and finally when it’s our turn to order, the twenty-something zombie-like man moves right up to the counter.

He orders, as if he didn’t see me. He stares blankly, as if in a coma, questioning, reasoning something too big for any of us to fathom.

And when I get past my frustration, I am reminded, that evil in the hearts of men might not just be found in those let out of the insane asylum.

A potential killer might be the man who cuts you off without eyes contact standing in the Starbucks line, and we scurry around missing it, ignoring the signs of hurt hidden behind the demeanor.

I see her face so polished.

She smiles, politely puts on a facade, dancing around the questions I am furiously wanting to ask her.

We go our ways. I know her story. I know her journey.

Yet she hides behind a smile and her fake presentation.

We walk away. I tell my daughter, deception is found not just in those who look crooked.

Some of the most polished, most professional sounding can carry hate and yet, we might not even notice it.

So, how do we protect our kids from masked people parading like friends?  How do we raise compassionate, empathetic children who will live smart as a serpent, but gentle as a dove?

• We can remind our growing ones, appearances are not everything. Evil can lurk in “perfect” appearing people.
• We can encourage them to pray discerningly before cuddling up to a new friend.
• We must teach them the importance of living in real community. A screen can hide an identity and trusting our kids to centering themselves around internet lives can be dangerous.
• We must remember, The Oregon College killer hid in an online chat forum, called 4chan. He made friends with people who had no face, those who had agenda’s that weren’t in link with Godly character.
• We must teach our youth respect; respect for life, for people’s differences, for others own goals and purposes. A generation that blasts heads of people off in video games five or more hours a day are much more likely to think nothing when real blood splatters, don’t you think?
• We must not let society mold our infants into monsters we don’t know. Too often parents drift farther from their children as they get older. But my husband and I have always witnessed, young adulthood is when youth need wisdom, leading, direction, and guidance more than ever.
• We must teach our kids, the Lion searches too and fro for who he can destroy. And like a lion, he likes the weak, will do everything he can to isolate and separate them before he makes his kill.  (Isolation is a huge warning sign, parents must never ignore.)
•  We must stay alert; listening for trigger words, odd behavior, friends that are not God’s best for our children. (In my childhood, friends made all the different in the road I ended up going down.)
• We must teach our youth from a small child, God’s teaching, His character, His purposes. Scripture instructs us to talk to our children from morning until night about God and His goodness. A child who sees God as big, will honor those He created.
• We must remind children about online predators. Names without faces can be undercover terrorist, masking extreme belief systems, or child predators, out to exploit that child’s innocent. Keep the computer and television visible, and never leave your youth for days on end without any kind of supervision.
• We must continue in conversation with our youth. The enemy hides in darkness and secrets. Ask hard questions, confront dangerous behaviors, be bold in speaking up for truth and our child’s innocence.

The parents of the children who stood and said they are Christians, must have done something right. Those young adults gave their life for an eternal destiny more real that their breath or their earthly existence. 

And if we are bold, diligent, parents who educate our children about God, and others, the internet, and the real dangers that lurk out in the world…

Maybe no more young people will have to spill their blood unnecessarily because evil lurks and we live in a society that often longs to fan sin into flames.