Fear Not, I am With Thee

Like any parent, almost everything I do seems to be for my children, and this blog is no exception. I record my thoughts and feelings so that someday my kids can look back on their childhood and know what their mom was thinking at the time. If I am still alive, it probably won't mean a whole lot to them. But if they ever have the misfortune of being in my situation, they won't have to rely on other people's stories and memories of their mom. Not that I don't have plenty of my own memories - it's just that, since I am now a mother myself, I would love to know what she thought about certain things and how she handled difficult situations when I was a kid.
Last night, my sweet baby was singing "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star" while I was putting her pajamas on her. As her dad leaned over her, listening to her sing, he looked at me and said, "Don't you know those parents would give anything to hear that one more time?" So today I'm going to tell my girls what I think about the awful tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. As a parent, I can't imagine anything more devastating or life altering than losing a child. To lose a child in such a violent way is a pain that no parent should ever have to endure. The media is currently saturating the airwaves and the Internet with every morbid detail of this horrific event. I have tried my very best to shield my children from the coverage of that day, simply because I don't want them to be afraid to go to school. It breaks my heart to even think about discussing children their very own age who died in such a painful way simply because they went to school.
Various groups are having a field day trying to decide which issue is the most important-gun control or mental illness. The CT authorities are conducting a full scale investigation into the events leading up to this tragedy. I have to confess that I'm not sure what good an investigation is going to do. All of the major players (the shooter and his mother) are already dead. In my eyes, there's no one left to hold responsible. No discovery made by law enforcement will bring even one of those precious children back. But if this investigation in some way leads to preventing something like this from happening again, then it will be worthwhile.
A third issue that has been brought to the forefront is the issue of religion in schools. In America, religion has been systematically removed from our public education system a little at a time. There are many people who want to say that the awful things that happened on Friday could have been prevented if this was not the case. So here's what I think about that: If anything good has come out of this tragedy, it has gotten people talking about God and about prayer. I confess that I was shocked to hear a children's choir sing, "Silent Night" on the Today show this morning. They even used the words Christmas, God, and prayer during the telecast. As this show typically leans way to the left, and completely ignores many stories in the news simply because they might offend someone (unless it offends Christians, they don't seem to mind doing that) I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to hear such things.
Here are my thoughts on religion in schools: Teachers are amazing, selfless, wonderful people who have the immensely important task of educating our children. Their job is to teach our children to read, write, and spell, not to teach them how to be productive members of society with a good moral compass. That, my friends, is a parent's job. More specifically, it's a mother's job. Among the several thousand other small jobs, a mother is responsible for making her precious child feel loved and secure, for teaching them right from wrong, and helping them to understand that each and every human life has value. It is also a mother's job to teach her children about their family's religious beliefs, not a teacher's. As amazing, creative and wonderful as they are, a teacher cannot be expected to do a mother's job for her.
For me, my relationship with God has always been an intensely personal thing. I was taught to believe that "my Lord is near me all the time" like the hymn says. I believe, and have taught my children that we can pray no matter where we are at any time. My children do not need anyone's approval or permission to speak to their God. No piece of legislation can keep the angels of protection that God has placed around my children out of their school. I ask for his favor and his blessings on them each and every day before they walk out the door. And that's all we can really do.
It's time to wake up, people. No one knows what's going to happen next. The very idea that we are in control of what's going to happen in our lives or even in our own bodies is ridiculous. If anything good can come out of this most evil atrocity, I hope it will be a restoration of faith among God's people and a call to action for mothers everywhere. We need to take back our children from the media. It's up to us to teach our children that violence in movies and games isn't real, and it isn't okay. Think about who taught you that your actions have consequences. I bet it was your mom. It's time to quit blaming the games, the media, and the magazines and take responsibility for raising productive members of society.
My girls' favorite lullaby at the moment is a hymn I learned as a child, "There's Within My Heart a Melody." It includes the words, "Fear not, I am with thee." I hope that my girls will remember that. Jesus is always with you, whether some politician from Washington says he can be or not.