The Value of Children

I had a home visit today about two hours away from my home. Stopped and had lunch with a friend, so I ended up being gone about 8 hours. It’s a nice break, even though now I’m quite far behind on what I need to do at my desk.

This morning I voted for a levy to increase property tax so that the school’s could have a larger budget. Since our current administration doesn’t seem to value education, the schools are really behind. Now, I must first state that I realize my opinions may seem irrelevant in regards to property tax since we live in a parsonage, but I guarantee you that I would have definitely voted yes and paid the tax any way.

I was at the polls when they opened and was shocked to see the number of elderly there early. I can assume, pretty safely, that they were there only to vote no to save themselves $700 a year. It struck me as so incredibly selfish -- I will take care of me. My kids are grown and taken care of, so now it’s my job to take care of myself. Me and mine, that’s all that matters.

I prayed almost out loud that God would help me to always keep children as a priority even long after ours are grown.

It got me to thinking, then, about caseworkers and their horrendous case loads. Obviously a government that only pays enough to hire one social worker for every 35 to 50 kids, doesn’t really have a value for children. How can a social worker even do that many monthly visits, much less have time to select an adoptive family?

And then we wonder why we have full jails and a huge homeless population and pregnant teenagers and a drug and alcohol problem among youth. Maybe it’s because there is not enough money given to the programs, schools, and people that could keep the kids from growing up heading in those directions.

I never really liked kids as a young adult (I still don’t some days) but I am bright enough to see that “children are our future” and that if kids don’t get what they need, it will impact who they are growing up.

My husband has often said, and we’re not sure where he heard it or if he made it up himself, “Adults give back to society what society gave them as kids.”

And that’s for sure!