I work with children every day and have raised children.  Although I am no expert or a “professional” with a degree in how children think, I have something to say regarding youth of all ages.  I believe the daily raising, teaching and working with children gives me a little insight into what they think because they tell me what they think.

The KEY to the child’s heart is the parent.  For all the programs, camps, ministries and classes designed for children, no matter how well intended, it is parents who are the most influential in their lives. The parents are the ones they run to when they are scared of storms.  Parents are the ones they want when they are ill.  Parents are the ones they want when they have problems in their lives.  Parents are the ones they want to spend time with.  Parents are the ones they want to listen to them.

Never once have I heard children mention youth ministers, preachers, elders, teachers, babysitters, daycare centers.  Only parents.  Sometimes they will mention grandparents, but the most influential are their parents.

Coupled with this are those who take time to truly listen to what matters to them.  Young people take time to bloom, to grow.   Just as we cannot force flowers to bloom, we cannot force a child nor a young person to open up without slowing down our lives to their pace.  The time most important to them is time spent at home with their parents and brothers and sisters.  I have this on good authority — young people.

“One time there was a student who was struggling in his courses.  He went to talk about it to the professor, but the professor brushed him off with, ‘If you can’t handle the work, you should drop the course.’”  The student went to his academic advisor, but she was on her way out the door and didn’t have time to talk.

Now, a custodian overheard the conversation, and, seeing the discouragement of the student, invited him for a cup of coffee.  It turned out the student was dealing with the death of a family member and the stress was affecting his personal life as much as his studies.  The custodian walked him to the counseling center and arranged an appointment for him.  He called the student several times in the next few weeks to see how things were going and helped him think through dropping the course.

Which one of these was the true mentor to the student?”  The professor replied, “Why, the one who had mercy on the student.”    The dean then said, “Go, and do thou likewise.”         ~ Unknown

“Then were there brought unto Him little children, that He should put His hands on them, and pray:  and the disciples rebuked them.  But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me:  for of such is the kingdom of heaven.  And He laid His hands on them, and departed thence.”     Matthew 19:13-15

“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”       Deuteronomy 6:7
“Our only hope as a nation is in the return to the Scriptural underpinnings on which the institution of the family is based.”      ~ Dobson