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What Children Really Believe
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Time goes by fast. It seems like only yesterday that my wife faced contractions coming every 30 seconds as we raced to the hospital to deliver our daughter. And then just two months ago, she turned 13. My daughter, that is. In six short weeks, my wife turns … a number unimportant to this column. However, that 13th birthday deserves more attention. A few minutes of research revealed a half-dozen statistics of interest to anyone serious about reaching kids these days. Read through these numbers and you'll understand more about the young lives in your program. On my daughter's birthday (July 26, 1996), approximately 10,682 births took place in the United States on that typical, single day. No wonder the U.S. spends $7.5 billion on greeting cards every year. I prefer to send free e-cards; except to my wife, of course. Now for the interesting facts: Of the 10,682 children born that day, 3,738 live in a single-parent home. Some areas of the country experience higher rates than others. This means one in three children in your program likely lives with only a mother or a father at home. In most cases, dad's not around. What do these kids believe about families? And do your activities, arts, crafts, or lessons assume a two-parent home? Take a moment and review the ways your materials reference home life. Quite likely, this statistic didn't surprise you. But it nearly wrecked me one day in the children's ministry I led. I noticed a young boy throwing a fit before our 9 a.m. Easter service. Apparently, he did not want to go to the room for four and five-year-olds. As I watched his mom repeatedly plead with him and pry his hands off the stair rail, she and I made eye contact. "Can you help?" she asked. I decided to give mom "expert" advice on how to handle her child. Fortunately, before I could insert my foot in my mouth and chomp a toe or two, she filled me in on an important detail. "He started acting like this right after his dad passed away last month." I look at each child differently since that day. Sure, some act like angels while others need more angel-training. All, though, live in homes with circumstances that I'll likely never understand. And I pledge to give them automatic and voluminous grace. Too many kids face adult-sized problems before they can tie their own shoes in the morning. We serve them well when we loosen up a little before making judgments. Back to our numbers. Unless dramatic education reform takes place, 3,204 of the children born with my daughter will fail to graduate from high school. That's right—three of ten won't receive a diploma. A reliable indicator of a child's likelihood to graduate is the ability to read at grade level following third grade. If you ever feel frustrated that some children don't want to read their Bibles, think again: they can't read them. Makes you wonder if kids really need VBS, or if they're better served with a summer reading assistance program. |
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