We don’t like our children to be troubled by difficult news. Especially in America where our children do not face daily struggles of war and famine like they do in other parts of the world, we would rather flip on the Saturday morning cartoons and let the commercials preach rainbows and unicorns. A child’s dream is fulfilled when she can live vicariously through chic Barbie, or when junior can add the latest action hero figure to the bazillions he has already. “If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ he would be the preacher for this people!” (Micah 2:11) Indeed, this is the preaching we seek.
We hear in Micah 2:6, “Do not preach”–thus they preach–“one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.” We don’t want to hear how screen time will turn our kids’ brains to mush. We don’t want to hear how super-sizing and convenient fast food disease our kids with obesity. The very things we cling to for comfort become our disgrace. And we certainly don’t want our children to hear the troubling yet real stories of children who are plagued by famine, war, sickness, and abuse. If they heard, they may react with compassion and cease their own whining for yet more rainbows and unicorns.
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The youngest children of Ephesus School continue to work on memorizing Micah 6:6-8.
Our newest Hebrew word is ללכת lalekhet, or lechu which means, “walk.”