Article April 21, 1986 Issue

Our children need not be helpless

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Recently a heart-rending article appeared in our local newspaper. The writer was a columnist and parent, lamenting about the safety of children. Every stranger becomes suspect around them, and parents are torn between being "worried on the one hand about perverts, concerned on the other about smothering children in an overly protective web." ^{Reprinted in The Orange County Register, September 12, 1984 .} The columnist saw no answer to the problem, and this made him angry.

As every parent knows, these concerns and fears appear very threatening at times. The newspaper column brought back memories of my own concern when our children were small. But we are not, as the writer suggests, helpless before these anguished thoughts. There are answers that can comfort the parent and all those who love and cherish children, answers that show us our children need not be helpless before evil.

These answers lie in developing an awareness of God's omnipotent power and loving presence in the child's thought as well as in the parents'. This consciousness of good is a powerful tool in facing the despotism of evil. In the Bible can be found many comforting verses that show God's ever-presence. As a child I was encouraged to memorize them and think of them often. Verses such as "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways," ^{Ps. 91:11.} and "The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." ^{Ps. 121:8.} Also, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" ^{Ps. 139:7.}