Protecting Our Children

Yesterday Greg and I attended Safe Church training. It is a program primarily targeted at those staff and volunteers who work with children in a church setting. It shows us how to be alert for signs of abuse in children, and signs that someone may be an abuser.

It is so sad that there are people in this world who make this kind of training necessary. But unfortunately it is so. As parents (as well as volunteers who work with children), we must be vigilant in ensuring that our children are safe.

While going through some of the signs that someone may not be respecting your child's boundaries, we noticed some things that we have actually encountered with people in dealing with our boys. (Not people in our church, just to be clear.) There have been situations or comments made by people that kind of struck us as not right. It was very encouraging to see that in fact we were responding properly by addressing these situations or comments, and that we were not over-reacting.

Certainly we do not know that those people would ever be abusive in any form. But by golly, when the alerts go up, we as parents have to respond. After all, it is our duty as parents to protect our children, even if we run the risk of overreacting to something. We would rather be safe than sorry.

I've known too many people who have suffered abuse as children, whether it was sexual, physical, or emotional. Those scars remain for a long time, if not forever. I pray that our boys will never have to face that.

I would encourage anyone who is given the opportunity to learn more about protecting your children from abuse to follow through. After all, our children are worth it.