It’s been just over a week since the hideous massacre of innocent school children in Texas and we’re still grieving as a nation. You, like me, probably have grandchildren close to the ages of the children who were killed and you’re distraught and wondering how can we possibly keep this from happening again.. Your heart breaks for the parents, grandparents, families and friends who are going through unimaginable suffering. Families are devastated as their little ray of sunshine is gone forever. It’s unimaginable to even think about much less have to endure. It doesn’t matter if you’re a liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, you just don’t want to see any more school children murdered.
Sadly, this school shooting was not an isolated incident as shootings continue around our nation every week now. Our society has allowed and continues to allow circumstances to go on in this nation that bring about these tragedies. And, unfortunately, a lot of it began with our generation, the baby boomers, and the generation of our parents.
Most everyone agrees no eighteen year needs an assault weapon unless he’s going to war. While we have a constitutional right to bear arms in order to protect our families and property from criminals and possible government tyranny, keeping deadly weapons out of the hands of deranged individuals should be a national priority. No lunatic should be able to purchase an assault weapon. Just a quick look at this recent gunman’s Instagram account should have been enough to make him ineligible to purchase any kind of gun.
Ironically though, some of the voices screaming the loudest for stricter gun control, also scream the loudest for abortion rights. They don’t seem to make the connection that these same precious children could have been killed while still inside the womb ten years earlier and it would have been hailed as the mother’s right to choose.
If we really care about protecting the life of our children, wouldn’t we be fighting for both stricter gun laws and abortion laws?
The Value of Life Diminished
We live in a country where anyone can end their pregnancy at any time for practically any reason. Children learn most by example and this blatant disregard for life teaches them that life is not valuable.. For the past fifty years we’ve shown them that a live baby can be destroyed in the womb and discarded for simply being an inconvenience or life disruption.
The younger generation is being trained by us that human life is not sacred and can be destroyed at will. Why are we now surprised when they run into our schools, churches, malls, and theatres to randomly kill? We are reaping what we have sewn. The first step to stopping the massacres in our land is to stop the massacres going on inside the wombs of our mothers.
God Forsaken
We must teach children about God again. We threw Him out of our schools decades ago, and now we are reaping the consequences. We forbid our precious children to pray collectively in school as if somehow praying to God is a bad thing. We’re sending them the wrong message. Instead of giving children permission to pray when a live shooter enters the school, why not have them collectively pray for His protection every day?
We may have gone too far from our Christian roots to have Bible teaching ever again in the schools, but a simple acknowledgement of God and His sovereignty over our lives by collectively allowing children to go to Him in prayer every morning and asking His blessing over their day would teach them that there is a God to which we are accountable.
Sure, religion and spiritual matters should be taught at home and are the parent’s responsibility, but what about those children who aren’t taught anything of God in the home? They may not get any moral guidance what-so-ever. Just a general acknowledgement of God every morning through a short prayer could plant a seed in these children’s lives that we all answer to a higher authority.
What can we grandparents do?
We worry about the type of world we are leaving our grandchildren. This is not the America that you and I grew up in. It’s becoming a more violent, evil place with each passing day. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
We’ve heard all the practical suggestions about making the schools safer and harder targets — single points of entry, locked doors, more guards in schools, arming teachers, red flags, back ground checks, etc. These are all great steps, but the reality is we could implement each and every one of them and still see little change until the hearts and minds of the people living in this country are changed. We could ban every gun on planet earth and the murderers would still find a way to kill.
We, must pray like never before for our children, our schools our families, and our nation. Our children and grandchildren are depending on us. We must also work, lobby, and vote to get prayer back in our schools as it originally was when our nation was founded. It’s our most powerful tool to combat the enemy whose purpose is to steal, kill and destroy.
And we must return to being a nation that values life from conception to natural death and pass that value on to our children as we once did. We must abolish abortion in this country as soon as possible. Until we do, no matter what other steps we take, we will be facing these murderous situations time and again.
Forge a chain! For the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. Ezekiel 7:23 (ESV)
Duking Out Retired Life 