We spend trillions of dollars on making weapons of destruction but none of that is permanent. It might kill a few evil people and at the same time killing the innocent. “Sorry about that. The innocent must die along with the guilty,” is the cry. Not true! No innocent must die. No innocent has to die. And although man does this, God gets the blame. God is a puppet master – he pulls the strings. It’s like a Punch and Judy show. But God is not like that at all. He shows us the right way and the wrong way and it is for us to decide which path to travel on.

You don’t get rid of hate and evil by manually killing it. The only way to defeat evil is by good and the only way to defeat hate is by love.

The song “Bless the Broken Road” said, ‘we all can take the broken road but it is glorious when we stop and take the unbroken right one’ . That is where we will find love.

And talking of Punch and Judy shows. They are mainly banned now because Punch hits people over the head with his stick, even his wife and the baby. We adults surmise it gives children ideas that that is OK behavior. However, children can see it is all a game – make believe. Not once as a child did I consider going out, after watching Punch and Judy, get a stick and hit someone over the head with it. I knew better. The same thing with the cartoon “Tom and Jerry”.

Computer games showing children how to get points and win the game by blowing up buildings and killing people with bombs and missiles – that is OK. Adults seem to have no problem with that. The more violent – the more interest. And these computer games get more violent and the so called ratings, like PG, get watered down. PG ratings is where the business men make more money. It puts the blame squarely on the parents. Parental Guidance. Let parents guide their children. They watch first what their children are watching. How many parents actually do that?

Ridiculous isn’t it?

If Christ’s disciples had been just children. They would have believed in the Infant birth and Christ’s resurrection from the dead. There would have been no Doubting Thomas among them.

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead as he also did to a child. Jairus’s twelve year old daughter. Jesus loved children above anything else on this earth.

Jesus often presented children as an example of the type of faith adults are to have. When Jesus blessed the children, He told His disciples, “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15). In another instance, when the disciples were fighting about who would be the greatest in God’s kingdom, Jesus brought a child to stand in their midst. He then chided His disciples: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2–4). According to Jesus, the qualities of children that are worthy of emulation are humility and simple acceptance.

Jesus wants each of us to possess a childlike faith; that is, a pure, unassuming, and humble faith. This straightforward type of faith allows us to receive God’s gift of salvation without pretension or hypocrisy. It allows us to believe unswervingly that God is who He says He is. Like children who rely on their parents’ provision for daily needs, we should humbly depend on our Heavenly Father for provision in both the spiritual and physical realm.

However, we live in a society today where our children exist in fear. They do not feel safe in school, at home or even in their churches. We have seen news stories where children are killing children, where babies are being used as financial negotiating tools, and where children have become the object of sexual desire and perversion. Child-care workers who make less money than fast-food employees are raising someone else’s children. Some teachers, make less money than grocery clerks do. Parents have become ghosts to their families, often letting an older sibling or complete strangers care for them. Today’s parents sometime use the TV, computer, or video games as baby sitting tools, figuring that they can have a few moments peace while the child is occupied. While television shows sometimes contain messages of hope, they are often lost within a flurry of sex or violence. Super heroes today defeat the bad guy (if you can tell good guys from bad guys) by total annihilation. The news is full of people who want not justice, but retribution. In our churches children are told that the end of the world is near, often Pastors talk about these days as “end days”. Statistics are reported daily that tell inner-city children in the USA t have little hope of living past the age of twenty. When we look at this world, is it any wonder that our children seem to have very little hope?

Isn’t it time we listened to them?

What spurred me on to write this Editorial was my wife, Joan, today reading the lyrics of a Isla Grant song that, I expect few of you have heard. It is a shame it isn’t played more often. Grant has a beautiful voice, full of emotion, and she writes from the heart.

Listen to the Children By Isla Grant

Listen To The Children Lyrics

They are crying out for peace around the world

They are telling us to stop the hurt and pain

Their smiles can melt the coldest heart

Their tears can pull your world apart

Why don’t we listen to the children

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Why can’t you see the world their eyes can see

There is no room for hate or jealousy

And color means nothing to them

To a child another is a friend

Why don’t we listen to the children

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Why don’t we listen, to what they try to say

Make a world of peace for them to live in

Take a leaf out of the book

They read to us each day

Why don’t we learn a lesson from the children

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So everyone around the word join hands

And spread the word of love across the land