Monday, October 29, 2007

How Do We Rank?

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I came across this quote and had to share it. I'm not sure any explanation is needed and I think it is something we should all consider. I can't tell you how disheartening it is to turn on the news and hear a story about a child that was left in the car and died because of the heat, a child that was beaten to death, or any other act that resulted in the harm or death of a child. It also hurts to read the number of abortions performed each year. That's a figure that's hard to swallow.

I love children. I don't remember a time when I didn't. From the time I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to have a family and vowed that I'd give birth to at least nine. God has chosen to bless us with two daughters currently and we pray for many more. There are so many joys I could share about having children. I pray that those of you with children already know the joys I speak of. As I talked with my hubby the other day, I related how it felt, at least for me, when I gave birth. There's a feeling that you have that is almost indescribable. It's overwhelming. It's joy and happiness. I'm sure fathers feel it to. I'll have to remember to ask my hubby to describe that feeling. All I know is that I was overwhelmed with emotion and immediately started to cry. I'm not sure if it's fear of the responsibility that comes along with having children. I know that the first question I asked was "is the baby alright?" "Does she have all her fingers and toes?" Hearing the affirmation that indeed the child was fine, made me breath a heavy sigh of relief. To lose a child would be incredibly hard.

As I ponder these things, I am forced to think about our country as a whole. How do we treat children? What value do we place on their lives? What would we do to protect children? How could anyone bring harm to a child? I'm curious to see what you think about this quote so I'll pose this question:

If you were to judge our society on the treatment of children, where would we rank? (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being lowest and 10 being highest). Feel free to elaborate on your ranking if you feel inclined.



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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know that I can give a definite number on this because I think we have it all messed up. I think we are pretty good at giving children THINGS, but, as a society, I am not sure we are good at TAKING CARE of them in the way that we need to be cared for. American kids have more stuff than any other kids, but that doesn't mean they are better off!

Corrie said...

Hey Sonya,
I agree...I don't know what ranking we would give, but things seem to be very out of balance in our culture. Even though in many ways, we do "take care" of our kids, I'm not sure if we are focused on the right things.
Good food for thought!
Have a great day,
Corrie =)

Jill said...

I agree with Lauren and Corrie. It's hard to place a number on such an important topic since numbers and rankings are so relative. The first thing that came to my mind was the material vs. the spiritual/educational, etc. There are many places in this world where children don't have clothes, schools, very much food or running water, but perhaps they feel tremendously loved.

gail@more than a song said...

I'm like the others, don't know if I can do a number.
Good quote! But you know what I thought of as I read the quote and your post? Abortion, that quote is so true when you think about that and all the babies that have been aborted and not treated well at all. Sad.