Richard L. Evans
The Spoken Word
25 January 1970

HOW COULD I FACE MY CHILDREN?

This was heard from a wonderful, forthright grandfather. He had just talked with a young grandson — one of those searching sessions when a child asks direct, innocent questions — when a child with steady eyes and innocent honesty could make a man earnestly examine himself to see if he detects any deception within his own soul. And then this honest, grateful grandfather asked a simple question: “How could I face my children, my grandchildren, and tell them I had done wrong?”

Don’t try to hide your heart from a boy. “Boys,” wrote Emerson, “know truth from counterfeit as quick as a chemist does.”‘

Too often we hear of abuse of children: cruelty, corruption. One can scarcely conceive of this being so, and it reminds us of this sobering indictment from our Savior: “… whoso shall offend one of these little ones … it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” It is something to think of.

Children come here clean and sweet and teachable, from the Father of us all. Innocent they come, and innocent they are, until environment or example is otherwise. “The mind,” said William Ellery Channing, “like the body, depends upon the climate it lives in, on the air it breathes.” Heaven help those who abuse or neglect or corrupt, or are cruel to children, or who are indifferent to the environment that takes their innocence from them.

Children have a right to be protected from exploitation and from evil influence. “I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.” “How could I face my children — anyone’s children — and tell them I had done wrong?” Lord, help us to live to feel clean and comfortable with honest, innocent children, and with others also, and with our own souls inside.