Heaven Sent by Henry Lee Battle
God sent Jesus to Earth as a child because we see His glory in the presence of our children. When our children smile and hug us, we see God’s miracles at work… This is why what happened in Newtown (Conn.) is so disturbing. It takes a demonic, demented, and disturbed mind to take the lives of children.
This is why we should cherish our children… Even if you don’t have children that bear your genes, you should have some children in your life. Connect yourself to the life of a child.”
Howard-John Wesley, Senior Pastor of the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., reminding us why we must do all we can to build nurturing cultures for all of our children.
When I heard about this unimaginable tragedy, I was in my bedroom hiding amazon.com boxes. Parents at this time of year (at least Internet shopping parents) know the amazon.com box arrival dilemma: how do you explain all those boxes arriving at your house to the kids? I joked on Twitter “Pay no attention to those amazon.com boxes, kids, they’re just gifts for your cousins.” I wrote a post about the annoying elf on the shelf and how we have to move it so the kids think it went to the North Pole and back, and I think about the elves on shelves in Connecticut that don’t have to move again.
But the boxes were what made me cry. All I could think of was the parents in Connecticut who have hidden amazon.com boxes in their houses just like I do. Maybe they already wrapped their gifts and it’s the wrapped boxes that are hidden. And now, their sweet child, their baby boy or girl… the gifts would never be opened. And I cried and cried, and when the kids are at school this week, and thank God they are safe and they will be at school this week, and I take out the amazon.com boxes to wrap the gifts and hide them again, I will cry again for the Connecticut parents. I’ll count my blessings, because as a parent I know how lucky I am to be able to hug my kids and watch them open the boxes on Christmas morning, but I will be thinking of and praying for the Connecticut parents who won’t.
Mary McCarthy in Splice Today discussing the grief of families of the young victims of the Newtown massacre.
We’re all Newtown, CT today. We’re Newtown parents and educators today. Every child and educator who was lost is one of ours.
Dr. Steve Perry on what we should all keep in mind.
…Why are these killers always men? What is it that we teach our young men in this world that makes them think it’s a mark of manliness to kill the unarmed and innocent? Whatever it is, it’s disgusting. It’s not manly to kill any unarmed human. It’s miserable, crawling cowardice.
Ben Stein, in The American Spectator, highlighting why we must teach our young men well.