What about the kids?

We've all read or heard the news about Tiger Woods and his alleged affairs. Perhaps you've heard or read the news about war in the Congo. Perhaps you've read about the piles of bodies in the morgues in Nigeria. How about the skyrocketing deficit in our country? Or the failure of many to pay their debts by filing for bankruptcy? Or the endless kidnappings, rapes, and murders? You've no doubt read or heard about death, divorce, financial issues and drugs over and over again.

In some strange way all of these stories fascinate us to some extent. There's a curiosity factor in them. However, in spite of the fascination, regardless of the headlines there seems to be something conspicuously missing from these stories. The reports seem to be glaring in their omissions. Well they are to me anyway. The children. What about the children?

In all of these stories there are children affected. Tiger's children are going to suffer for his behavior. There are children in the Congo that are missing. The bodies in the morgue are actually children. Today's debt is going to be left for our children. And think of the countless souls that have suffered at the hand of adults.

When do we, the adults who are supposed to know better, start thinking about the children? When do we put aside selfish ambitions, attitudes and ideas to consider those little humans who are looking to us for wisdom, care and love?

It's way too easy to do what we want and then try and deal with the consequences later. Don't you think that if we always said "how will my actions affect the children?" that we would change many of our actions?

So how did we get here? Consider that we feed ourselves a steady diet of rubbish in our music, our television, our movies, the internet, and our video games. And then we try to act as responsible human beings. We pump out porn and rubbish on the airways and then complain when someone molests another human being. We worship people that are good at *playing games,* aka sports figures, while we leave our churches empty. We allow these so called heros a "free pass" for their transgressions if they can keep it together on the field. We spend so much time making money that we don't have time to actually play with the kids.

With all of these things, we neglect to consider the impact on the children. I don't end up seeing the worst of the worst and yet I encounter children who are being neglected, or fed a steady diet of rubbish more often than I'd like. How will we ever turn it around? When is enough, enough? How many have to suffer or die before we stop?

Well I say start tomorrow. With everything you do start asking the question "How will my actions affect the children I encounter?" Don't think it matters? What have you got to lose? The children are already suffering and dying.

In case you think these words are simply man made musings, consider this verse from the book of James in the Bible- "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

If God cares, maybe we should too.