A Child Is a Gift

Someone in a discussion posed the question, "Is it ever right to separate a child from its mother or father?"   In a perfect world the answer is short: no.   We do not, however, live in a perfect world.   It is right and necessary, for the life of a young and innocent child, to separate the child from one or more family members to avoid:

A two-year old tossed into a creek, still strapped in its carseat, to drown.

• An infant being systematically starved to death and in one case allowing a child to starve while they cared for a virtual, online child!
• A child  returned to troubled, abusive, or disturbed parents to be later killed.
• Children subjected to incest rape, torture, and forced sexualization at the hands of family members or strangers (boyfriends) allowed into the home.
• Children subjected to emotional abuse, constant belittling, demeanment, and insults.

Jesus said words which should be remembered in Matt.25.40 "... as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

What are we doing as churches, families, friends, and communities to help parents learn the skills they need to parent?  Many of these situations arose from lower income to middle class families and those on the fringes of society.  How to make a difference:

Start a free parenting class (often local health departments have programs already in place and just need a space) in your school, church, or business.

Establish a support network for parents needing to 'de-stress'.  A weekly event where parents can come together to see good behaviors, methods, and techniques modeled for them in their own community and by their neighbors.

Identify needs in the community and advocate for solutions. High drug use, gangs, absent parents, low morals, lack of hope, anger management, empowerment training for women to avoid bad relationships, whatever the problem - work together to find a solution to save the lives of children!

Our smallest and our weakest require us to be our stronger, better selves for them because they often cannot speak for themselves.