It’s never been easy being a parent. When you first become a parent, you realize how quickly your life changes, in a way you never can truly understand until it happens.
Your first realization is that your baby needs you to survive. Every day.
And then each year as they grow, into toddlers, and then elementary school, middle school and high school, you learn that they still need you.
They need you to teach them right and wrong and you learn how to discipline them in order that they can learn it.
You teach them to honor their mother and father and their elders and to treat others with respect. And you teach them where not to go and what to do if they get in trouble.
And as their parent, you learn how hard it can be, but you do it.
But it may have never been harder to be a parent than it is today. Not because kids and parents are all that much different, but because the world is different.
Parents today woke up thinking what to tell their kids about going to concerts and thinking about whether they should even now let their kids go to concerts.
Since September 11th of 2001, we have learned about terrorism. But when terrorists target and kill children, children attending a concert with their parents and children walking to meet their parents in the lobby at the end of the concert, we realize the world may be more dangerous than we even think.
For parents, it’s a reminder of just how important their role is in helping their children not only be safe but help them also feel safe. And to know that wrapping their arms around their child while also equipping their child with the moral and spiritual support they need has never been more important.
(Photo credit Getty Images)