Every single day the world suffers from deliberate vandalism, disturbing violence and what I believe is a vacancy of the heart. This vacancy or state of emptiness that seems to affect so many is because the world has tried to fill their hearts with everything but the One True thing that is missing – our One True God.

Where there is nothing but destruction and chaos, there is no God.

Every day there are more and more media posts of students and adults being reprimanded by law enforcement over vandalism, theft, bullying and violence. I wonder what we are truly teaching the next generation. I don’t care how right you think you are, how entitled you think you are or how validated you think you are – violence and vandalism are not okay!

I’m not sorry that I’m still “OLD SCHOOL” and I believe we should seriously discourage this kind of behavior and not encourage it. That means parents should teach their children compassion and not comparison. No one is better than anyone else. We all have the right to a different opinion. You don’t have to agree with my opinion either but we do have to agree that violence is never the answer. However as a parent I believe it starts with me and I have the responsibility to “Train up a child in the way that he should go…” That means you don’t dismiss improper behavior. You deal with it directly. Even teachers, coaches and school administration should teach and model good behavior on and off the field and in the classroom to set an example of what is appropriate and what is not.

I grew up in a strict but loving home. My parents may not have gotten everything right and I know I didn’t either as a parent but I promise you one thing, my children knew the difference between right and wrong. I also know what it’s like to discipline my children and deal with the problem now, not later.

I taught private school for 10 years and taught Children’s Church/Kids For Christ for over 20 years and I know very well about how children think. Believe me; it’s never far from their parent’s beliefs. Ironically parents often sent their children to me and wanted me to instill better beliefs in them by being at a Christian school. However, that doesn’t work if there is a double standard. Parents can’t expect teachers to change their children’s attitude and train them differently if there is no standard at home.

I can honestly say I did my best to instill in every student I taught to be their best and to act accordingly. However, I firmly believe it’s the parents’ responsibility to first set the right example for their children and then pray they will follow it.

Why so many public schools and parents can’t handle their children any longer is because discipline has been removed from their agenda. Children are allowed to do what they want, to who they want and any time they want without any recourse.

I am not perfect nor will I ever pretend to be. I have made poor decisions and I have paid for each dearly. But I know for a fact, if we want our children to do what’s right then we must first lead the way as parents, as teachers, as coaches and as school administration.

We have to send the message that vandalism and violence is not okay! And trying to justify it all is not okay either.

I know we grew up in a different time when we were kids. We argued and we fought but we didn’t think we should silence others forever. We didn’t go on social media and post hateful things. We were opinionated but not to the point that we would rather kill someone than to disagree with them.

Wake up people! When we choose to overlook things like vandalism, bullying, and wrong behaviors in our children and in ourselves then later we will have to deal with the consequences. When we choose to hate everyone who looks differently or thinks differently then we have lost compassion. When we choose to overlook violence then the next thing we know – our conscience will be lost. Then we will have nothing left but vandalism, violence and a vacancy in our heart because we won’t even surrender to the One True God then there will be no love for one another and humanity will be lost forever.