Our Kids Need Us!

Here is an interesting, yet disheartening fact:
"The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) estimates that within a generation, the primary responsibility of raising children will have passed from biological parents to the professional."

As a pastor, teacher, and youth worker within a western cultural context I have seen this to be true.  Scary, eh? If parents aren't raising their children, then what are they doing? Most of them are working long hours just to pay the bills and put food on the table. Others spend their days in jail for drug/alcohol abuse and crimes of other kinds. Some are at a loss as to how to raise their kids and thus leave it up the "professionals" or other seemingly well-suited family members. Others are back at university pursuing a new career, in hopes that this new education will allow them to more adequately provide for the family. 

Regardless of the reasons, noble or not, our children are spending less time with their biological parents and more with alternate care-givers: babysitters, after-school programs, extra-curricular activities, church programs. . . . and the harsh characters that the cold streets have to offer. This is why I believe in children's ministry. Our children need us!

Many of us have constructed for ourselves a pace of life that is faster and more "productive" than ever before, yet simultaneously less fulfilling and less satisfying.  As a result, our youngest and most vulnerable are suffering from the lie that money is god, that life consists of what you can create with your own two hands, and that you shouldn't have to wait to get what you want. The pace of life has stolen parents away from their children, out of necessity, and families are being re-defined as we speak. 

Thankfully this shallow way of living does not exceed the capacity for God's grace and help. He is not restricted by our expectations, and sometimes does not give us what we want. . .but rather what is best. God is altogether not like us; different and holy. Fortunately his wisdom far exceeds ours and he knows better than to subject Himself  to our limited timetable. This is good news.
 
So, as you look into the faces of the precious ones in these photos, remember this. . .. God loves kids and the only way our kids will see this is through us!