I'm home sick in bed. Home alone with my book tv and iPad. Been watching CNN the last half hour all about the Newtown massacre. Psychologist are telling parents how to tell their children about the shootings and how to help them feel safe going to school. Now the White House press secretary is going on about how the President is going to try to meet with people to discuss how to prevent future tragedies like this one. Everyone wonders WHY this type of thing is happening so often nowadays? And HOW we are supposed to raise comfortable, confident children in today's sick environment.
Here's what I think.
#1 Our country is ridiculously supportive of and entertained by violence and shooting scenes in movies and video games. What's with us being horrified by mass shootings in real life while dumping money into movie theaters to watch them play-out on the big screen?! Recently Batman...Bourne...Taken 2 ...and so many others! We have a serious problem ourselves the way watch this garbage by the thousands and hope it doesn't affect society. Not gonna happen people. We need to stop supporting such violence on the big screen. It's not good for us.
#2 We need to protect out children from the violence pouring in upon them in TV and computer/video games at their own homes. I was at apple last weekend and stood with my mouth hanging open at a young, maybe 6 year old boy, playing a game he pulled up online. The computer screen made it look like he was holding a hand gun and he went around, steering himself with the computer keys, blowing the images of other people away. As he'd shoot i heard him say, "boom!", "die fool". What on earth!? I was so taken aback that I went to him (apparently his parent was engrossed in shopping because no one was around - another issue) and asked what game he was playing. He showed me how to find it online and carried on. I was horrified. What is happening to 6 year old little boys all over the country who are filling their free time games like this? It doesn't take a brain surgeon. Plus, if six year old are playing them, imagine how many teens and 20s are doing it.
And you know what they say about addiction. Addicts always want to make their hit bigger and better. So whats a gun-loving gamer to do when playing online just isn't cool enough anymore? We are in trouble.
#3 Gun control. I get it. Ideally it would work - but it won't. People who want a gun badly enough are going to find one. Look at drug addicts. We need to move on.
#4 and this is my main point. How about we decide to save our breath and all the long hours that would go into a gun debate, hashing why the shooter did what he did or watching the media reports over and over and spend them investing in our children. Talk to our children about bad guys and help them feel okay; talk to them about violence on screen and its dangerous influences; wrap our arms around them and tell them how much we love them; play a board game with them; create a heaven on earth inside our own homes. Kids need to know there is good in the world, talk to them about this. Help them do something good for the people around them. Talk to them about God who knows their name, hears their prayers and loves them exactly as they are. When children have a relationship with Jesus Christ and they know that when someone dies they get to go to heaven to live with Jesus, death is not so scary anymore.
I'm raising a 10,9, and 6 year old all who are aware of what happened in Connecticut last Friday. I told it to them briefly, emphasized that someone was sick and did something terrible with a gun, and reiterated why we should not play or watch violent things because it affects all of us. My school-age children processed for a minute, asked few questions and went on their merry way. Their world is good and safe and they are secure in it. There was no second thought on their way out the door to school this morning, as their shouldn't have been.
Thank heavens these kids know they have a mom at home nurturing and setting limits for them. They have a dad at work providing safety and security for them. And, if all else failed, they have a Heavenly Father who has a plan for them and will always be there. I wish all children and adults around the world knew this.
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