"Why does God allow school shootings?"
Everyone asks that question when we have a school shooting or any mass murder. We want God to stop it now. Since He doesn't appear to want to do that, we look to governments to stop the killing. The question is answered in the Book of Job. Not a lot of people like that answer though. Few take the time to even read Job.
In the meantime, Christians can, however, offer up a way to stop such things from happening. Simply do this
- Love your children better.
- Stop rewarding despair and desperate acts with publicity.
- Thoughts and prayers should come before school shootings happen, not afterward.
It's not an easy answer. It involves creating no laws or government programs. It involves giving your kids an anchor in the storms of adolescence. It means introducing them to God and encouraging them by example. It means spending time with them when you'd rather be doing something else. It means paying attention so you don't miss the signals when they are in distress.
That can start happening tomorrow. No law need be passed. No billion dollar program need be started. The question is, are we as a nation willing to do what is needed, or would we rather let mother government solve the problem for us so that we don't have to make any effort other than perhaps going to a march or rally to signal our moral superiority?
The truth is that waiting for some big authority figure to come along and solve our problems, is exactly why our kids are killing themselves and their classmates at such an appalling rate. And this generation's parents are exactly the ones who taught our kids that someone else is responsible for their problems. We taught them that by running down to the school with lawyers every time our kid got in trouble. We've blamed everyone and everything but ourselves and our unwillingness to pay attention to our kids, to take time with them and to lead by example. We've taught teachers that they are not to hold our children responsible for their actions, but to blame something or someone else for their misbehavior.
Most of all, this generation of parents has provided little opportunity for their offspring to meet God or to study at the feet of Him whose grace can actually make us better men and women. Until we stop looking for a human utopia, made by man and perfected by man, we shall continue to have these unintended consequences. Our kids will continue to give up in despair and blame others for all their woes.
And they'll continue to shoot, stab, blow up or bludgeon those whom they blame for their misery, hoping the television will vindicate them somehow. It won't do that for them, but since when have kids ever paid attention to outcomes that didn't suit their fantasies?
© 2018 by Tom King
The truth is that waiting for some big authority figure to come along and solve our problems, is exactly why our kids are killing themselves and their classmates at such an appalling rate. And this generation's parents are exactly the ones who taught our kids that someone else is responsible for their problems. We taught them that by running down to the school with lawyers every time our kid got in trouble. We've blamed everyone and everything but ourselves and our unwillingness to pay attention to our kids, to take time with them and to lead by example. We've taught teachers that they are not to hold our children responsible for their actions, but to blame something or someone else for their misbehavior.
Most of all, this generation of parents has provided little opportunity for their offspring to meet God or to study at the feet of Him whose grace can actually make us better men and women. Until we stop looking for a human utopia, made by man and perfected by man, we shall continue to have these unintended consequences. Our kids will continue to give up in despair and blame others for all their woes.
And they'll continue to shoot, stab, blow up or bludgeon those whom they blame for their misery, hoping the television will vindicate them somehow. It won't do that for them, but since when have kids ever paid attention to outcomes that didn't suit their fantasies?
© 2018 by Tom King
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