I try not to brag on our church
family too much because none of us would want to rob God of His glory. But can I tell you how proud I am of what
some of our folks are doing to care for children in our community?
Recently, the Arkansas
Department of Human Services gave a plaque to a group of people in our
congregation who work with the foster child program. The ministry is called Pure Commitment. The goal of the ministry is to provide care
packages for kids who, because of some crisis in their own homes, enter the
foster system. The group also ministers
directly to the children and provides some respite care for foster
parents. Booyah! That’s taking Jesus to the kids—a group among
whom Jesus is very much comfortable and at home.
Another group in the church
works in our weekly after-school program with older children from the Hot
Springs School District. This is the
second year for this ministry. Our workers
help them with their school work, provide casual mentoring and encouragement,
feed them and good supper, and move them into the Wednesday evening children’s
programs in the church with the rest of our kids. God is using this to allow us to have an
impact on these children and their families.
Some of these children are at-risk kids and need all the positive
influence and love they can receive.
The reason I’m sharing this is
because of something I stumbled across in my files in the last couple of weeks
about children. Amy O’Neal, who has
spent much of her life caring for her own special needs daughter and other
special needs children, shared this with me a few years ago. It reminds us of our blessings and our responsibilities
to the children of our world. It’s
called We Are Responsible for Children.
We are
responsible for children
who put chocolate
finger’s everywhere,
who like to be
tickled,
who stomp in
puddles and ruin their new pants,
who sneak
popsicles before dinner,
who erase holes
in their math workbooks,
who can never
find their shoes.
But we are also
responsible for those
who stare at
photographers from behind broken windows,
who can’t bound
down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never
“counted potatoes”,
who were born in
places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
who live in an
X-rated world.
We are
responsible for children
who bring us
sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with
the dog and bury the goldfish,
who hug us in a
hurry and forget their lunch money,
who cover
themselves with band-aids and sing off key,
who slurp their
soup.
But we are also
responsible for those
who never get
desert,
who have no safe
blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their
parents watch them suffer,
who can’t find
any bread to steal,
who don’t have
any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren’t
on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters
are real.
We are
responsible for children
who spend their
allowance before Tuesday,
who throw
tantrums in the grocery store and who pick at their food,
who like ghost
stories,
who shove dirty
clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits
from the tooth fairy,
who don’t like to
be kissed in front of the car pool,
who squirm in
church and scream on the phone,
whose tears
sometimes make us laugh and whose smile sometimes make us cry.
And we are responsible
for those
whose nightmares
come in the daytime,
who will eat
anything,
who have never
seen a dentist,
who aren’t
spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed
hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and
move, but have no being.
We are
responsible for children
who want to be
carried and for those who must,
for those we will
never give up on and
for those who
don’t get a second chance,
and for those we
smother and
for those who
will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.
In 1971, the Carpenters sang
the theme song from the movie Bless the
Beasts and Children. I’m all for
blessing beasts, but by all means, let’s be sure and bless the children in our
world. If we don’t, who will? And even more, let’s do it in the love and
name of Jesus who said, “Let the children
come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God”
(Mark 10:14).
May I share this poem and if so who should the author, Amy O'Neal?
ReplyDeleteYou may certainly use this poem. When I received it there was no author's name attached to it. Amy didn't write it, I don't think. I'm working on the assumption that it's anonymous. Thanks for reading the blog.
ReplyDelete