My husband and my daughter are both teachers who love the kids in their classes as if they were their own. I fear and pray for them in their roles as educators, and for the kids they teach. The heartbreaking tragedy in Uvalde has shaken the world yet again, leaving people to grasp desperately for answers, for solutions to protect the most vulnerable of our society, and those who dedicate their lives to those kids. Teachers’ first thoughts are not for self preservation when something like this happens. They think “how do I protect my kids?” There’s tons of stuff flying around the internet right now and I was particularly moved by this post shared by a former teacher, who is a friend and taught my now grown daughter when she was in first grade many years ago.

The Messy Christian

20 hrs  · 

Forty…thirty years ago, we didn’t have school shootings. We had kids in pick-up trucks parked out in the school parking lot with rifles hanging in the back of their truck cabs. My dad had a gun safe that was left unlocked and I know he wasn’t the only one.

Access to guns has always been around and so has mental health struggles. This leads me to believe that there has to be something else at play here. Something that goes deeper than our laws or lack thereof.

We have an issue of the heart and, friends, God is always at the heart of the matter.

When I was growing up there was a very popular saying, “God don’t make no junk.”

I saw it all the time.

Maybe we need to be letting our kids know that now. Maybe this generation needs it just as badly as we did.

When we teach kids that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by their creator, we teach them to value life. Theirs and others.

When we teach them that one day they will be held accountable for the life they’ve lived, we teach them to own their choices and make good ones because one day they will meet their maker.

When we teach them that they were born with a purpose for their lives, we give them the reason they were created.

When we teach them that they are valuable and loved because “God don’t make no junk”, we teach them that they matter and that they are somebody no matter what anybody else says.

When we teach them that there is One who reigns supreme above their life and everybody else’s, we are teaching them that the world doesn’t revolve around them, but Him.

When we teach them that there is One who cares for them more than anyone else, we give them someone to call out to when they find themselves all alone in their bedroom wondering why anything in life even matters.

These aren’t just “feel good” things to say to someone or a false sense of hope or reality.

All of creation points to our creator and we do no one any favors ignoring that fact. When we as a people get back to the heart of the matter…the heart of the Father…I believe we will truly start to see the change we all desire.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14