....and how are the children?

 

“….and how are the children?”  

There are cultures where this question is asked upon meeting a friend, gathering in homes, the opener for worship services.   I suggest we make this question “….and how are the children?" be foundational, a must ask at every budget meeting on every level in every institution and at each policy meeting and commissioner planning session and stewardship drive and scripture study.  With that question “….and how are the children?” before us at the start and re-minded throughout the meeting and gathering perhaps we will be wiser, kinder, gentler, saner.

 

Let us try it on a personal and small-scale way.  

 

By children I mean the ones we birth and bear (up and with); little ones who share our name our genes our hopes; the ones we call by name; the kids we pass on our way to work as they wait for the school bus; the ones who get their names in the paper for athletic, educational or artistic achievement; those whose names and images accompany news of their murder; those who are always a significant portion of those described as “innocent casualties.”

 

As the horrors of war shock our screens…..ask the question….demand an answer……..ask it often to those who have the power to answer in ways that can stop the killing, the hunger, the harm.

 

“….and how are the children?”