Fighting for Innocence.
Posted by Hannah Etsebeth | Posted in Musings | Posted on 21-06-2010
Tags: children, children growing up to fast, christian, growing up, innocence
5
Innocence just doesn’t seem to get fought for much in today’s cultures.
I was pulling up to a stop light on a residential road where I saw a kid who looked to be about 7 walking with his mom. Having just had his hair cut at the neighborhood barber, he kept rubbing his hand up the back of his head with a smug smirk on his face. He was proud of his hair cut. But the thing that struck me wasn’t the hair (although the spikes on top were perfectly formed). It was the look on his face, that was pure and simple… innocent. I looked at him and his mom and thought… “He has a good mom. You can tell that. He’s a good kid. You can tell that. His face is innocent and he is loved.”
Will that innocence disappear from his face too? How long until his innocence is gone? When will the pure naivety leave his face? And when innocence leaves, where does it go? Who takes it? How can it be stopped?
Innocence seems to disappear so quickly…
This past week I have become keenly aware of the innocence of children everywhere and have found myself wondering when the exact time is that the innocence from the face of a child begins to fade.
Currently, my man is in Africa. While there he’s met many orphans and has seen a country laden with beautiful people and also deep sorrow… much like the rest of the world, just manifesting itself differently. When he talks about children growing up too fast in Uganda, he doesn’t reference wearing makeup too early, but he said that 50% of the children are having sex by the time they are 15 years old. 50%. Shocking.
Children are growing up too fast all over the world. However, it seems like our culture actually encourages it. I believe that innocence is beautiful. We should fight for the innocence of our children… always.
I really am curious what your thoughts are on this as my questions are sincere. How do we protect the innocence of our children? How do we keep our children from growing up to fast, and what is too fast?
**Photo Credit**
