Raising Children

Dear Victorious,

The Bible speaks of children as blessings from God, etc. But it seems that society sees children more as a burden. The newspapers are full of stories about the problems with children. Educating them, pulling them out of poverty, making them behave and other issues seem to be constantly in front of us. Isn't this a dichotomy of sorts?

Love My Children

Dear Love,

Yes, the Biblical truth of the matter is that children are blessings from God. However, they do present society with a dichotomy. While an individual mother or father may truly love their child, that is not the child that society struggles with.

Indeed, society struggles with the exception children. They are the children who have natural issues - such as handicaps, orphans, and expensive or heartbreaking diseases. Those rub society the wrong way. Then there are the unnatural issues with children - such as child abuse, sexual slavery, kidnapping and of course, children who are rebellious. These natural and unnatural problems that stare us in the face.

If it were not for these natural and unnatural problems, everyone would find joy in children in general. But society as a whole would still be challenged. Education, health care, economic opportunities as they mature and other issues would still challenge our governments - and impact our tax base. So while individuals would embrace children, the society as a whole would still find the dichotomy as present as ever.

Make no mistake, children are a blessing from God. But blessings often arrive with great responsibility.