Kids Have Been Big Losers

I entered school in the 50s. Since that time, a lot of changes have taken place in education and these changes have made a significant difference in the lives of children. Several years ago, I came across a short description of some losses kids had experienced since the 1950s. Having lived through theses decades, I knew these losses were a reality and included this list in my book Kingdom Education. Consider the following:

In the 1950s, kids lost their INNOCENCE
They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term – the generation gap.

In the 1960s, kids lost their AUTHORITY
It was the decade of protest – church, state, parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

In the 1970s, kids lost their LOVE
It was the decade of me-ism, dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self: self-image, self-esteem, self-assertion. It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex but forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.

In the 1980s, kids lost their HOPE
Stripped of innocence, authority, and love, and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.

When I revised Kingdom Education, I realized that our kids had lost something more during the decade that we had just come through. So I wrote the following.

In the 1990s, kids lost the MEANING OF TRUTH
It was the decade when our national leaders redefined truth to be merely that which was legally accurate. Public opinion polls defined moral truth while the church sat by quietly and watched.

A couple of years ago, I received an email from someone who had just finished reading Kingdom Education. This person asked me if I thought kids had lost anything more since I wrote the book. At first I didn’t think so but I wanted to think more about it. After thinking carefully about what had taken place during from the turn of the millennium till now, I sadly had to write the following.

In the 2000s, kids lost their FAITH
Having lost the meaning of truth and the growing threat of terror attacks, this generation lost their faith in the truth of God’s Word and found their lives being driven by fear.

In the 2010s, kids are in danger of losing their FUTURE
Being driven by fear and not by faith, a growing number of this generation is frantically chasing the false claims of the American Dream. They are living only for the temporal and, therefore, are chasing after treasures on earth only to find them decaying before their very eyes. They are finding life to be full of despair and are quickly losing any sense of eternity.

Some people may see this as very discouraging. This would be true if it were not for God. The only hope for recovery from all these losses is found in Jesus Christ. Here is what I have learned from Scripture that gives me purpose for my life and, therefore, provides me hope for the future. Faith in Jesus Christ provides hope and answers to these decades of losses by:

• Breaking down any generation gap and forgiving one of his sin and restoring relationships through the shedding of His blood
• Bringing understanding of the necessity of authority and being the only One who exercises it correctly
• Defining true love – for He is love
• Restoring hope because He holds the future in His hands
• Giving one the ability to know truth because He is truth. Truth is who God is not something God decides
• Destroying fear because He is eternal and unchanging so He is totally trustworthy
• Giving meaning to the temporal as it is mere preparation for eternity