What do we tell them?

I'm not one to stay incredibly on top of current events. For better or worse, I can go days without turning on the radio and our television is rarely tuned to the nightly news.

Fortunately, I am married to a man who keeps a close ear to the ground when it comes to happenings around the world and he relays the major events to me in an abbreviated bare-minimum-what-I-need-to-know manner.

It's not that I don't care – I care very much.

It's just that sometimes, it's too hard to hear and feel helpless when it comes to changing the world.

And then I wonder: how much do my children need to know?

Does a six-year-old need to know that more than 80 people are dead in France as a result of a terrorist assault? At this age, do my children need to know that there are riots breaking out as a result of skin color? Do they need to overhear just how little confidence we may have in the two choices it seems we'll have for the president of this country?

While I wrestle with how much is too much for them to hear, there are a few things that I am certain they do need to know:

• Jesus died for ALL people. He also LOVES all people – and so should we. No matter how hopeless the world, our leaders or society may seem, HE is still in control of it all.

• We have a distinct privilege in this country to a) vote and b) worship God openly; we should make use of every opportunity to do both and thank those who have fought for these privileges.

• Through prayer and the spreading of the Gospel, we can bring change to the world. We need to be the light in the darkness, the stranger here in this foreign land, the ceaseless prayer warrior for those who do not enjoy these freedoms and for those who try to eliminate them.

When it comes to current events, each one of us as parents needs to decide just how much we will share with our children. But regardless of what knowledge they have of the world around them, let us never fail to teach them the truths which they simply cannot live without.