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| Map of School Shooting in the US |
This is my journal from nearly 3 years ago:
Nearly two weeks ago Oregon was once again a topic of national news because of a mass school shooting. The last tragedy of this magnitude in Oregon was during my senior year. I remember sitting in my business class and having Mr. Kinman turn on the TV while all of us just stared at the situation. Yes, we were scared, but the thought never crossed my mind that it would happen again and again. I also don't ever remember my parents questioning whether or not to send us to school the next day.
A couple of years ago I had a friend reach out to me for my opinion about whether or not to send her daughter to school the next day after a social media threat. My respond was the same as it remains today:
"These children are not ours to keep. We are called to love them, pray for them, and protect them. I don't feel living in fear of what might happen to them is serving God's purpose. Live by faith, not by fear."
I posted something very similar today in response to a threat made to a local HS. Teach your children how to respond in the event of an emergency...give them the tools and then let go, let God. We can't change or prevent the time when our lives end. It may sound harsh, but the fact remains that our days are already accounted for. I think we all wish we had the ability to change this, but we don't. I will choose to live each day with purpose, love, and hope. I will also continue to pray for my child. I will pray that God gives me the tools to parent well, to teach my child to be kind, compassionate, and to stick up for the little guy, reach out to the lonely, and most importantly love Jesus. My main purpose in life is to make sure that my son knows Jesus as his personal savior.
I know media often blows things out of context, but if even a fraction of the story about UCC is true in regards to students standing up for their faith, I feel strongly that these parents did exactly what they set out to do; teach your child that only Jesus is the way to eternal life. As a parent our nature is to protect our child from death, but in reality we only have the ability to point them in the direction of eternal life.
I think if given the chance many parents (mine included) would give anything to save their child from an "early death," but at the end of the day we are unable to add numbers to any of our lives. (Journal entry ends here as the plane landed)
Have my thoughts or hopes changed? Slightly! Do I still believe in my parenting purpose? Yes! In the last 3 years LOTS of shooting events have made the national headlines. It seems that for every story we hear about, there are 3-4 that went without national coverage. Yes, I am scared. I want change. I want my kids to go to school in the morning without worrying about their safety, but that is not reality. I see things on social media that prayer doesn't work. Prayer takes action! We need to be utilizing the skills that we have been given! If we are going to be adamant about keeping our guns than we need to be responsible about keeping them out of the hands of our children. We need stricter gun laws. We need to keep reporting suspicious behavior even if we hear it doesn't make a difference. We need to find alternative things to do with our mentally ill kids than feed their obsession with guns. We need to be the snoopy parent that knows what kind of crap lives in our kids room. My kid doesn't stand a chance of hiding stuff in our house...I randomly do room inspections. I also do heart inspections. Every night we sit down as a family and have dinner. We don't expect our kid to be happy all the time, but we expect him to share his heart. Sometimes are dinner conversations are hard and serious, most of the time they are light and funny, but they happen. Parent with purpose!
