Last week I walked down the hall at my office to find a co-worker in tears and obvious distress. I was concerned that someone in her family had died or become ill. The cause of her anguish was reading the local newspaper article about a mother charged with capital murder of her two year old daughter, and the severe beating of a second baby daughter. My co-worker has small children and had seen Allie Jo, the two year old of the newspaper article with her grandparents not long before. How can the mother of a child kill her own baby, my co-worker asked? I don’t understand either; it seems obvious there is a horrible abnormality in that mother.
Such an event violates the natural trust that is given by God to humans at birth. We “naturally” trust our parents and as a result of that God given bond, we learn to trust others. It is extremely important to nurture that trust our children have. I really enjoy teaching the Cradle Roll class and Bible Hour classes because it allows me to observe the very early development of “trust” in God by our babies and small children. They learn about God from the examples provided by their parents, and learn to trust our unseen creator.
Unfortunately, we are imperfect people and we are all untrustworthy at times. We have all lost our tempers with our children. As long as we refrain from reacting in the heat of anger, we should be able to provide discipline and guidance to the children in a way that still builds trust. Similarly, there are other people who trust us besides our children. We should hold close any confidences made to us under a trust relationship. I can think of no reason to reveal a confidence left in your care unless it is dangerous to that person or another party. Once trust is broken with a person, it is very difficult to retrieve or rebuild.
It is my prayer that we all strive to be trustworthy. I pray for the family of the child who was killed by her mother; we are so sorry for their loss. I pray for all of our children and grandchildren to experience love and growing trust in their family members, their school teachers, their Bible class teachers, and in God. I pray that the Church may provide a sheltering and healing place for those who have been damaged by broken trust conditions. Thank you, God, for your unfailing love in which we can trust.
Sherilyn Svien
Stephenville, Texas
