Kids Are Precious
Never despise one of these little ones; I tell you, they have their guardian angels in heaven, who look continually on the face of my heavenly Father. Matt. 18:10, NEB.
We have all seen it happen: frantic mother speed-racing her shopping cart through rush-hour traffic at the supermarket while a tired and bored little boy stops whining only long enough to grab boxes of extra-sweet cereal off the shelves. She makes endless threats about the pain she is about to inflict if he doesn't behave—without breaking eye contact with the soup can label.
Finally his energy level outlasts hers, and she explodes. As his howl reverberates to the frozen foods section, she calls him every demeaning name she can recall. She delivers wounding blows to his self-esteem as well as to his behind. And only after he is whimpering and submissive on the lower rack of the shopping cart does quiet return to the marketplace.
We remember paintings from our childhood in which a white-winged angel in robes hovers over a little child as he is about to cross a narrow bridge over a raging stream. The artist's comforting intentions are that God assures the safety of children. But a careful observer realizes that children are far more likely to carry lifelong scars in their souls than on their knees. The wounds that do the most damage are the shame-based ones that cause a growing child to say, "I am a nuisance; I am not loved; I really am rotten to the core, because my mother and my father told me so."
Jesus desired to plant a very specific image in the minds of His hearers. Before they spoke to their children, He wanted them to remember that other beings were watching those same children. And these were beings who had just been in the presence of the Divine. Fresh from the throne room of heaven, they were honored to behold young, promising reflections of that divinity. Such an awareness will always elevate how we talk to our children.
To do so will raise our children's estimation both of their parents and of God. They'll be as happy to be our children as to be God's children.
The next time you're tempted to raise your voice or hand in such a way as to cause pain, picture the child's guardian angel next to the child, and see what a difference it might make.
We have all seen it happen: frantic mother speed-racing her shopping cart through rush-hour traffic at the supermarket while a tired and bored little boy stops whining only long enough to grab boxes of extra-sweet cereal off the shelves. She makes endless threats about the pain she is about to inflict if he doesn't behave—without breaking eye contact with the soup can label.
Finally his energy level outlasts hers, and she explodes. As his howl reverberates to the frozen foods section, she calls him every demeaning name she can recall. She delivers wounding blows to his self-esteem as well as to his behind. And only after he is whimpering and submissive on the lower rack of the shopping cart does quiet return to the marketplace.
We remember paintings from our childhood in which a white-winged angel in robes hovers over a little child as he is about to cross a narrow bridge over a raging stream. The artist's comforting intentions are that God assures the safety of children. But a careful observer realizes that children are far more likely to carry lifelong scars in their souls than on their knees. The wounds that do the most damage are the shame-based ones that cause a growing child to say, "I am a nuisance; I am not loved; I really am rotten to the core, because my mother and my father told me so."
Jesus desired to plant a very specific image in the minds of His hearers. Before they spoke to their children, He wanted them to remember that other beings were watching those same children. And these were beings who had just been in the presence of the Divine. Fresh from the throne room of heaven, they were honored to behold young, promising reflections of that divinity. Such an awareness will always elevate how we talk to our children.
To do so will raise our children's estimation both of their parents and of God. They'll be as happy to be our children as to be God's children.
The next time you're tempted to raise your voice or hand in such a way as to cause pain, picture the child's guardian angel next to the child, and see what a difference it might make.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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