PROTECT YOUR CHILD FROM HARM

Many adults look back on their childhood as a happy time.  They recall a warm feeling of safety, a certainty that their parents would look after them no matter what. Parents want their children to feel that way,but in today's degenerate world, it is harder than it used to be to keep children safe. 

One ugly threat that has grown in recent years is sexual molestation of children. In Malaysia, reports of child molestation quadrupled over a period of ten years.  In Germany  some 300,000 children are sexually abused each year, while in a South American country, according to one study, the estimated annual number is a staggering  9,000,000! Tragically, the majority of these children are molested in their own home by people they know and trust.  But children should have a strong defense in their parents.  How can parents be protectors? 

Since experience shows that children who know little about sex are especially vulnerable to child molesters, a major preventive step is to educated the child, even when he is still young. Knowledge can provide protection "from the bad way, from the man speaking perverse things." (Proverbs 2;10-12)  What knowledge?  Knowledge of Bible principles, of what is morally right and wrong. Knowledge too that some grown-ups do bad things and that a young person does not  have to obey when people suggest inappropriate acts. (Compare Daniel 1:4, 8; 3:16-18) Do not limit such instruction to a onetime talk.  Most young children need to have a lesson repeated before they remember  it well. As children grow a little older, a father would lovingly respect his daughter's right to privacy, and a mother her son's-thus reinforcing a child's sense of what is proper.  And, of course, one of the best safeguards against abuse is close supervision by you as parents. 

Next time: SEEK DIVINE GUIDANCE 

From the book: THE SECRET OF FAMILY HAPPINESS, 1996