Children

The following "letters to God" have been making the rounds on the Internet.

Dear God...

Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?—Norma

Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't You just keep the ones You have now?—Jane

I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay?—Neil

What does it mean, You are a jealous God? I thought You had everything.—Jane

Did You really mean "do unto others as they do unto you"? Because if You did, then I'm going to fix my brother!—Darla

Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. Joyce

Why is Sunday School on Sunday? I thought it was supposed to be our day of rest.—Tom L.

Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.—Bruce

Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works for my brother.—Larry

I want to be just like my daddy when I get big, but not with so much hair all over.—Sam

I bet it is very hard for You to love all of imbalances) or socio-familial forces (prime among which is the ubiquitous "dysfunctional family"). In either case, the causative mechanism is beyond the child's control.

The old-fashioned view has it that a child's potential for evil (not all, mind you, but part of every child's nature) can only be contained with liberal amounts of unconditional love and firm discipline. The New Age view posits that love is enough; further, that the misbehaving child needs not discipline, but understanding and "help."

And so, because the New Age view has prevailed (albeit, in many individual instances, unwittingly), American children, by and large, have not been properly disciplined for more than a generation. They've been worshiped; at the least, treated with kid gloves. Instead of subduing the narcissistic impulse, adults have unleashed it. What today's child wants, he thinks he deserves.

—columnist John Rosemond

'Once nivcIiev.. teem nor can be doxniign dooms.' the Nashville lennenean In lane ion IM.