I was inspired by the “church kids” who have grown up with God being about their parents faith. They’re the kids no one likes to talk about. They’re the kids everyone talks about. They are stuck in the rut of their sin, just as we are. Their sin is self-destructive, just as ours is. Theirs is just more apparent and their need to change is more urgent, but I feel at a lost as to how to help them. What follows, I feel, expresses what these children are going through, how they would describe their feelings if they could, if they even wanted to.

 

We are the kids…

Who sweep it under the rug

Who don’t know how to explain it all to our parents

Who hate the rules in place

Who rebel in secret

Who have the truth

            And subsequently reject it

 

We are the kids who don’t want to understand

Don’t want to share

Who are forced to be here

Who try to do the impossible:

            Love the world

            while

            Loving God

 

We are the kids you whisper about

Whose mothers cry over

Our fathers hang their heads in shame

We are the kids some say cast a bad name on the church

We are the kids you wish would “go back to their old selves”

The kids you wish would change

We are the kids who need your help and don’t know it

The kids who wouldn’t know how to ask for help

            If we even knew we were in over our heads, drowning

Will you help us?

  

Father,

How do we help these children without being judgmental? How do we reach out to them without pushing them away? They need you just as we do. They are falling into rebellion and only you can save them. Use us as your instruments. Amen.