Monday, November 20, 2017

Fathers make known to children your faithfulness.       
                                                                                          Isaiah 38:19
           In some ways, this verse relates to Saturday’s verse.  It is often said that babies are not born hating others.  Hate has to be learned.  It has to be taught to people.  We teach children many things: to brush their teeth, to make their beds, to do their homework, and to say thank-you.  Mothers usually teach daughters to bake, and dads teach their sons how to fish.  (Or vice versa!)  All important lessons.  But how often do we teach children, deliberately and consistently, to love, to accept, to be kind to all people?  Have we said to them, flat out, that hatred is wrong?  How often do we speak to them of our faith?  How often have they seen us pray?  How often do we tell them that God has blessed us?  Or do we think that’s the job of pastors and Sunday School?  Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, these are questions for you.  
          We wonder what causes a young girl, in the Midwest of the America, to get on a plane and fly to the Middle East to be the wife of an ISIS terrorist.  We wonder why a teenage boy from a small town in Oklahoma starts admiring Hitler and wearing a swastika.  Maybe they were never taught about what really matters.  Maybe it’s time we all began teaching.

​©Carol Dean Henn, 2017