Monday, August 1, 2011

Suffer the Little Children to Come to Me

Today I read Luke 18 which has all the same stories we have talked about before with a few exceptions. It contains the story of the rich man who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. It also contains the story of the blind man that seeks Jesus to heal him and the crowd tries to stop him from calling out to Jesus. This chapter also has the story of the parents who want Jesus to bless their children and the Apostles stop the parents. It does not contain it in Luke, but in Mark it states that the reason they stop the parents is because Jesus had just told them that little children are saved in the Kingdom of God. So it makes sense that they would stop the parents from, what in their opinion was, wasting theirs and Jesus' time by blessing children that were already saved. Jesus of course takes the time to bless the little children and I am sure to talk and play with them.

Of all the gifts our Heavenly Father has given us, the ability to share in the creation of life with Him is perhaps the most sacred of all. This is why the Law of Chastity is so important. Little children are so precious and so full of life. They are a sponge that soak up all around them it is so important to make sure that they are given the best opportunities possible. When I think of all the people who abuse the opportunity to have children and all the children that are born in to horrible conditions, and I'm not talking about in countries where the parents cannot take care of them. I'm referring to children right here in America. It saddens me how children have almost become a commodity, that some people are having children so that they can receive assistance from the government. Children are precious and should be treated as more valuable than gold. I could not even imagine doing something to willfully harm my daughter, even when she makes me the most upset. I just remind myself that she doesn't know how to communicate very effectively yet and is still learning. And the times where she wants to play and be held and read a book with me more than make up for the few minutes a day of frustration I might have.

I sometimes wish that the act of creating children was not done through sex. Perhaps if creating children were a bit more arduous, it would not be done so often. It disgusts me how creating life is treated so flippantly and how excited people get when someone gets pregnant out of wedlock. Children have a right to come to a home with a mother and a father and their parents have a responsibility to give them the most loving, nurturing environment possible. I firmly believe that God will hold us accountable to how we raised our children and how/if we provided for them. It is my opinion that the raising of a child will help determine his/her long term personality, and potential in life. Some people never get over the fact that their parents treated them poorly. I can only imagine how painful it must be for Heavenly Father to see how horribly some children are treated in this world. It makes me sad and hurt to even think about it, but Heavenly Father actually has to witness it.

Now, that's enough of the bad stuff involved with children. The flip side is that we are given the awesome responsibility to create life and to provide a loving, nurturing home for those children. I love playing with my daughter and teaching her new things and watching her learn and grow. It is my favorite part of the day and most days I would rather do that over anything else. I love the way she laughs when we play together. I love how excited she gets when we read her favorite book. I love how despite how much she enjoys playing on her own, she wants to spend time with her mother and I. She and her mother are indeed my most treasured possessions if you will. I obviously do not own them, but that is the closest terminology I can use. As a teenager and sometimes in college, my friends and I would often ask each other if there was a fire and you could only take one thing out of the house with you, what would it be. Hands down as long as my wife, daughter and cat made it out, everything else could go up in flames and we would be ok. It can be replaced and as long as we are together, we'll make it work.

Little children are the future. If you want to know why our country is in a bad state right now and why things have changed so much from our grandparent's time, it is because of how our parents were raised, and how they raised us and now how we are raising our children. The culture only changes because people change it. Culture is not an animate object that can change and manipulate itself. It requires people to do the changing. It is up to us to teach our children correct principles so that they will know the right way to live and act in society. As we teach and take care of our children, they will know the right way to raise their children and we can continue to make this world a better place to live in. And yes, raising children is definitely something you can solicit Heavenly Father's help doing and He is infinitely interested in this topic. He will not leave you helpless if you ask Him for help, I promise. Until tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment