Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6 NIV

Two things have happened that have drawn a lot of attention from the media lately.  The school shooting in Florida is a hot topic right now.  Sadly, it has overshadowed the fact that Billy Graham passed away.  Billy Graham was a wonderful man of God who preached to millions in his lifetime and the theme of his preaching was love.

1 Peter 4:8 tells us that love covers a multitude of sins.  Love is something that seems scarce in our world today.  Hatred and evil are much more prevalent.  Hatred and evil sell newspapers and magazines and get higher ratings on tv.  The only place where I have heard anything about Billy Graham’s death is on K-Love which is a Christian radio station. I don’t watch FOX news, but a friend told me that they have been paying tribute to this great man.  Media and social media is consumed with the school shooting in Florida and there is a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on, where people are pointing fingers and saying what should have been done and what should be done to protect schools in the future.

What is saddest about these kinds of tragedy is that people miss the real point.  The real point is that the opposite of love is hate and when people hold onto hatred in their hearts they plot evil.  Evil has been around since Adam and Eve took their first bite of the forbidden fruit.  Evil will always be around folks, it’s not going away until God calls us home.

So for all the Monday morning quarterbacks out there, I implore you to consider a few things.  Some of the solutions to this problem that have been suggested are to ban certain types of guns or certain parts for guns, or to arm teachers.  Much like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.

Let’s start with the arming teachers thing.  First of all I have a number of friends and relatives who teach, and God bless them for it.  I never in my life had any desire to teach school, particularly at the elementary, middle, or high school level.  College maybe, but my hats off to the teachers that are in the trenches in our public school system. Now most of these teach, because they have a calling on their life to teach.  If you are not in close relationship with God, you may have no idea what I am talking about.  So let me explain, when you are in close relationship with God and He calls you into a particular profession, you just have to do it.  You don’t do it for the money or the recognition, you do it because you feel so led to do this one thing that you can’t imagine yourself doing any other job.  Now many people who are called to teach, were obviously not called to be police officers, but we are going to train them to do just that?  We are going to expect them to pile yet another job on their already overloaded job description?  Seriously, is that such a good idea?

Next we are hearing a lot of things like abolish the NRA.  Why?  The NRA has not been involved in a mass shooting incident.  Then we are hearing that certain types of guns, like assault rifles, need to be banned.  We are hearing that bump stocks need to be banned.  Let’s take a look at the tragedy that occurred on 9/11, terrorists armed with box cutters took planes full of people hostage and forced the pilots to fly into the World Trade Center.  No one mentioned banning box cutters or doing away with air travel.  No, they tightened security for those of us that fly.  Box cutters are banned from airplanes, so perhaps we should make schools gun free zones.  Oh wait a minute, they already are, but the criminals tend to ignore those signs that are posted all around our schools.

There is another thing that I implore you to consider.  According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, more than 64,000 people died in the USA in 2016 from drug overdoses. According to the Uniform Crime Report (compiled by the FBI) 7,105 people were murdered with handguns in 2016.  Where is the outcry to criminalize drug usage?  Possessing drugs is illegal, manufacturing drugs is illegal, selling drugs is illegal, but using them is not illegal.  It is a violation of your probation or parole, so it may get you put back in jail, but just using will not send you to jail.  At least it won’t in Louisiana, I don’t know about other states.  I have questioned prosecutors about the willingness to prosecute someone who tests positive for an illegal substance and they do not want to do so, simply because usage is not illegal.  Don’t you have to possess it to use it?  Now to keep drugs out of our schools, perhaps we should make them drug free zones, oh wait, we’ve already done that and you can still get just about anything you need to get you high on any school yard.

Heroin overdoses have seen a dramatic increase.  Now Heroin is illegal, is it not?  Crack cocaine is illegal, is it not? Methamphetamines are illegal, are they not?  But any six year old can get their hands on these substances.  The use of these drugs attribute to a great deal of crimes committed.  People hurt other people because these drugs cause paranoia.  People rob others so that they can get the money needed to buy these drugs.  So does making anything illegal really solve the problem?  Think about it. If you were shot with a large caliber gun and still alive and rushed into the ER, would you want the doctor to grab a Band-Aid and put it over the hole that is gushing with blood and release you?  I seriously doubt it, but when you ask the government to handle a problem that needs to be handled within our homes and communities this is exactly what you are doing.  You are putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.

The problem here is that no one is looking at the people doing the shootings and saying what can be done about them.  No one is looking at the profile of the mass shooter and saying what can be done with our children to prevent them from turning out this way.

Now what I am talking about is a long-term fix.  I understand that this is not going to fix the problem we are facing right this second.  So for that matter, I agree that security needs to be beefed up at our schools, but we need to turn to law enforcement to do this.  School administrators need to meet with their local law enforcement and determine the best way to protect their schools.

Our scripture passage says that if you raise a child up in the way that they shall go, they will not depart from it. But what I have seen is that children are being raised by grandparents because mom and dad are on drugs or just too busy or just don’t care.  These grandparents often have health issues and are just unable to properly raise a young child.  Some children are being raised by video games and social media.  Some parents are so busy working to buy their kids everything they want that they don’t have time to spend with their children.  Parents don’t go to church on Sunday because that is their only day to sleep in.  Children need to be in church.  Children need to know that their parents love them.  Children need to know that God loves them.  Children need to learn to have faith in God.  They need to know how to pray.  Children also need to be disciplined, this shows them that you love them enough to correct them when they do wrong.  All these things take time.  Make time to do what is right by your child.

You can’t fill a glass with vinegar and hope that water will run out of it.  You can’t fill a child with violent video games and arguing on social media and think that love and kindness will come out.  We get out what we put in.  This is not a problem that the government can solve for us, this is a problem that must be solved in our homes and in our communities.

Several days ago I did a blog about how important it is to let our loved ones know how much we love them by paying attention to them when we are with them.  It may be the last chance you get.  Please don’t ever miss an opportunity to let your child or any other loved one know that they are loved.  Get your children in church, teach them to pray.  With the dangers that exists in schools today, don’t you want to know that if your child doesn’t make it home from school that they are in the arms of their heavenly father?  None of us know if we will make it through this day. Be prepared by developing a close relationship with Jesus Christ. And never forget to share the love of Christ with your loved ones.

Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great day!