Protecting Hearts

   This week as schools begin to open and children become the focus I am reminded as a former school teacher that our role as parents is to protect our children. Protect their heads and protect their hearts as vigilantly as we protect their bodies as young babes.  We live in a society that seems to think that children are "minature adults" and yet we know that it is not so.  Lucy Ann Moll wrote a beautiful post on that this morning at BasicsMatter.com.  You can read an excerpt below

At friends’ homes, I felt like I stepped into “Little House on the Prairie.” People blessed each other with words of affirmation. They hugged. They said, “I love you.”

Back at my home, dad yelled, and mom withdrew into stony silence.

I hated his yelling and her silence. It sucked the life out of me like a starfish washed up on shore unable to breathe, waiting to be noticed and brought home, a beachcomber’s treasure. I tried to be cheerful around my mom and help with chores, even finish my homework  and play quietly with my brother, Ted, but it didn’t matter. It seemed children didn’t matter.

The truth: Children do matter. Toddlers or teens, they deserve our love. Real love.

To read the rest of the post go here

Children do matter, and I am so very reminded of that as I look at our youngest two...and know that while one is 15 and one is 3 days old, we face the same challenge...how to allow them space to grow while still protecting their heads and hearts.