We’re in the season in which we celebrate Jesus being born as a human being. He came as a baby boy and we tend to get sentimental with candlelight versions of ‘Away in a Manger,’ and ‘Silent Night’. However, within two years of the birth of Christ, history tells us that an insecure, ruthless dictator slaughtered hundreds of baby boys in search of the one they labeled ‘King of the Jews.’ Obviously, Herod failed, but I wonder if our own modern insecurities are leading us down a path of child endangerment that isn’t as obnoxious and outright evil, but seems abhorrent nonetheless. Maybe, we don’t like children anymore….

Let me explain.

1) Have you ever noticed that in most U.S. budget cuts, one of the hardest hit areas is education? Arizona and California respectively have cut tens of millions out of their state education funds to ‘insure a better future’.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experience volunteering at Royal Family Kids’ Camp.  You can read about the importance of the program here.  I recently returned from another week at camp and as expected, returned physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and hesitant to re-enter my “normal” life knowing these kids returned to a life of loneliness, heartache, and continual disappointment.  Soon, I will re-learn how to hold conversations with people older than 8 years old.  I will stop expecting a hearty, kid-friendly meal at exactly 8 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 5:30 p.m..  I’ll be able to sleep through the night without having to escort a child with a small bladder to the bathroom at 4:00 am.  And I’ll stop “seeing” the children from camp at the grocery store, or McDonald’s, or Disneyland, my heart skipping a beat each time.   

My 11 year old son Ian and I went out to breakfast this morning before school. it was a last minute decision and it basically ensured that he would be a little late. Better mothers than I are more particular about this sort of thing, but I tend to be more liberal with out-to-breakfast mornings and mental health days then I probably should be.  

It was about 9:15 when we arrived at the attendance desk - 15 minutes late. Ian knew the drill. He grabbed the neon yellow late slip and began to fill it out. 

Name: Ian Dominguez Ball

Date: April 23, 2009

Time: 9:15

Reason for lateness... 

I laughed as Ian started to write. "He's sure to tell the truth," I told the attendance lady with a smile as Ian said slowly as he wrote each word, "we....went...out...to...breakfast."  Why not? We had gone out to breakfast. No need to pose. Or so I thought...

My last blog was inspired by this article I read in the BBC News Magazine about a young boy who knew, at age 9, that he would someday save lives. He went on to become a leading medical scientist whose research has, in fact, saved lives. 

From this article, I picked up a few tidbits of wisdom about how to encourage young kids to go after their dreams. Here are a few nuggets of gold I plan to put into practice with the young people in my own life:

1) Kids are thinking about the future.  "Thousands of children wrote to the programme every week," said the article, and I realized that pretty much every child I know has an answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Two of my nephews want to be pirates. One is already an accomplished artist. My pastor's youngest son already knows he wants to be a pastor. Another friend's elementary schooler wants to be a veterinarian. The list goes on.