March 13: SAD REMINDERS

Those little solitary memorials to tragedy multiply along our roads. Even if it is another youthful fad, this one is accompanied by tears and anger and denial. We see the picture on the front page of the paper or the television news about the auto accident. Then follows the tearful teenagers at the scene and later at the funeral home.
The school will provide extra counselors for the students to “talk” about their feelings. And then another cross will appear at the roadside. And then the following weekend, some of the same grieving kids will be partying and drinking and driving as if it never happened. And even when youths themselves raise the memorials, they often are the first to forget.
Why? Because we are dealing with a question of inner meaning and purpose in life that gives a young person direction. The futility of all the “don’t drink and drive”, “safe sex”, or “clean needle” programs is at this point. To say to a teenager “Don’t do this or you will hurt yourself” is wasting your breath unless you have given the child a moral and spiritual set of values on why “saying no” is the right choice. Too many reckless youth do survive to make any kid believe it will never happen to him or her.
The “beach week” tragedies of Spring break continue to be reported: rapes, murders, fatal accidents, alcohol poisoning, etc; the little memorials will continue to be planted but now by the college students.
The Bible says “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV) That begins with a Biblical basis of truth and builds on a rational faith. “The truth will make you free” Jesus said in John 8:32. Yes, parents and guardians, it is hard work. But that work will eliminate the need of these sad reminders and give us more time to place “Ebenezer stones”. (1 Samuel 7:12)

“God of All Life, both young and old, soften our hearts to be
genuinely touched by a wasted life and to commit ourselves
to helping the youth make right decisions. Amen”