Little Eyes Are Watching!

A few years ago an end came to the life of one of our country's enemies, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He was justly executed by hanging, for crimes against humanity.

Not long after that the news reported that a 10-year-old boy in Houston, Texas apparently mimicked the execution and hung himself from a bunk bed, ending his precious young life.

This child imitated something he saw on television that in my simple way of thinking should never have been videoedtaped or recorded - not for any reason. But in our "right to know, just gotta have it, I-demand-to-see-and-know-all culture", someone recorded it and made sure it was made available to the masses.

This sad, sad news brings home once again the reality that our children, the world's children, are watching! They are listening to all of us and they are saying what we say and doing what we do.

I couldn't help but be reminded of a silly little song my kids learned in Sunday school:

"Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
There's a Father up above, looking down in tender love,
So be careful little eyes, what you see."

The song repeats itself in four more verses with a few changes:

"Be careful little ears what you hear...
Be careful little mouths what you say...
Be careful little hands what you touch...
Be careful little feet where you go..."

I am sure that in the days to come much will be said in hindsight to speculate why this child took his life. Many questions will be asked that have no answers. The one thing that screams out to me and again reminds me of a word God has already spoken and confirmed in His Word - is we must guard our hearts. We must do everything that's up to us to do to guard and protect the hearts and minds of our children.

Three things I leave you with to pause and ponder if you will:

1. Be watchful. There is a very real enemy among us and he is working tirelessly and without sleep to steal kill and destroy...not just us, but our seed (our children). (What is God prompting you to be watchful of and for?)

* I Peter 5:8 "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour."

2. Above all other guardings, more than you guard anything else in this life, guard your heart. (In what ways have you left your heart and soul unguarded and therefore vulnerable to your own type of mimicking?)

* Proverbs 4:23 "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."

3. Whatever is up to you to do, be diligent and faithful to do it, EVEN IF YOUR KIDS DON'T LIKE YOU FOR DOING IT! Even if your sisters and brothers think you are doing the wrong thing, do what you know God is telling you to do and receive the tangible peace that comes from doing the right thing at the right time.

Stephanie

Stephanie Paul, wife and mother of two grown children. An "instrument of change" in the Redeemer's Hand, in the lives of wounded and hurting women. Currently serving as a part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America's Keswick as Woman of Character Program Administrator.

DIGGING DEEPER
James 1:22-25 (NIV)
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do.