Children rock

Children are so interesting. Sure they are completely selfish, but they are also full of trust and love thy neighbor. If you give a young child enough attention, he or she will smile at you and brighten your day.

But all that stops when their parents teach them not to talk to strangers. But sadly, children must be taught to avoid the danger of those creeps (far too mild a word) out there who would want to do them harm. Those horrible vile filthy disgusting perverts (still I'm being too kind) who would kidnap, molest, or in any way do harm to a child. Am I really to love that kind of person?

But back to children. When I see children, I am reminded of when I was a child. I feel a unique feeling as I go back to those days in my mind. I also remember those older people who didn’t appreciate how great children are. People that only saw children as rambunctious troublemakers. I always knew that children were real people, too. I never thought that girls had cooties, and I’ve always known that skin color was just skin color. Yet I was aware of all kinds of discrimination around me. I couldn’t understand why people would look down on, avoid, or dislike other people for such stupid reasons.

I was most keenly aware of ageism. I knew that we children were being treated like second class citizens in some places, i.e. church. I knew that children should be able to contribute to the Christian meeting, but they must be given the opportunity. My brother would sing at church when he was young. His voice was great (and still is). He wasn’t just cute, people could actually have a spiritual experience as he sang.

And when children reach the age where they can look at an idea from various angles, they come up with theories, they come up with questions, they can be so smart, it just rocks. At the congregation I attend on Saturday mornings, the format is more like Sunday School than like a church service. And everyone is encouraged to comment or ask questions during the service. The last two weeks a young girl has been asking questions. She is so smart and when she speaks everyone listens. She went to the front and did a reading yesterday. For the past three weeks, children have been doing the reading from the New Testament. They read a passage and then give a few comments. I’m doing the reading this week, it’s going to be tough following those children. I hope that I can speak with the honesty and sincerity that they did.