I'm watching the news on TV this evening and one of the stories is about a mom in Florida who had her children help her steal a dog from a pet store!  The whole thing was caught on surveillance camera inside the store.  The children, a 7 year old girl and her younger brother, were seen stuffing the Boston Terrier into a large bag they were carrying and then going over to the mom on the other side of the store.  Mom was holding a younger child.

This story reminded me of one my husband told me when he came home from work a couple of weeks ago.  He works part-time in a local Dillards Department Store.  2 girls were caught shoplifting that morning at "his" store...their ages?  9 and 6!  The police were called in and the parents had to be called to come to the store.  At first I thought mom and/or dad were in the car waiting for them but they were AT HOME!  Why in heavens name were these children even out by themselves in a mall department store?  They said their parents had told them to go to the store and do this.  My husband said the police took the 2 into protective custody but the younger child could not be prosecuted because of her age....good grief! It's not the children who should be persecuted it's the parents.   Why do people raise their children like this!  Why do these people even have children?

Last night I heard an even sadder ending to a very sad story...a 2 year old baby was found on the sidewalk, near his house, dead.  This happened here in Las Vegas last week.  After investigation it was discovered that child-protective services had been monitoring the home situation because of a previous incident.  There were a total of 4 children in the home.  All the children were removed (thankfully) from the home when this incident happened.  Someone from CPS had been to the home the Thursday before...and found everything in order with no signs of abuse.  At first abuse was not suspected in this case, although there were mentions of bruises on the child's body.  When the autopsy report came in...the father and his live-in girlfriend were arrested...the child had been killed by a blunt force blow to the stomach, probably a hammer. 

I just don't understand it....our children are not punching bags, our children are our future.  They are trained to do what their parents train them to do.  I cry so many times for these poor babies...and most of the time all we can do is cry and pray for them. 

A biblical verse says "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it"...this verse pertains to EVERYONE not just Christians.  More than likely the parents above were in an abusive situation as children...and as likely as not the cycle will continue.

Give your child an extra hug today!  Love them to pieces!  Appreciate them for what they are today, tomorrow they will be grown, and you will wonder what happened!  Become a foster parent to an abused child...I would if I could but circumstances won't allow it (mainly the circumstance of age!).

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