Tragedy and terror surrounds our children. Not a day passes that the news isn’t filled with horrific scenes on the media. How do we protect and prepare our children for the world they are growing into?

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology recommends helping children find ways of expressing their fears such as with drawing, writing, and role playing, giving honest answers to their questions in words they can understand, and being reassuring. Parents must remember that their actions and reactions influence their children as well, so adult responses need to be kept in check around little ones.

Saint Theodora advised her teachers to love the children before teaching anything. Children think of themselves first and how a situation affects them. They need to feel safe and loved.

More importantly, as people of faith, God, love, and prayer is not only a part of our response and teachings, but the answer to everything. Rather than responding to hate and violence with the same, we respond in God-like ways with love and compassion. We try to understand the whole story from all sides. We pray for peace, the victims, and even the offenders.We adults have to live this way for our children to learn from us. The future of the world depends on this.

(Have you seen my posts on Midwest Mary and Saint Theodora/Mother Theodore Guerin?)