Learning to Love

There is a large group of kids and teenagers in our village. Computer games and free movies in our living room have brought many of them to our home to play for hours, giving us ample time to learn their names and a little about their personal lives. Unfortunately, the cost of opening our home has resulted in spree of robberies.

For example, a boy no older than eight years came to our home regularly, and when he left, money was always missing. One day, his schoolmate showed up at my house with a rubber tie-down. “Rosario brought this to school today and was bragging that he took it from your house,” the boy informed me. The next day after school, the same boy came running into my kitchen. “Lacy, Lacy, Rosario says he’s going to steal your chickens and sell them!” I smiled. “Well, then,” I replied, “he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do with my neighbor because those are her chickens, not mine.”

Another boy came to my house regularly to play with my cats. One day he came to me very worried. “You went to get children for the church meeting, and a woman sent her sons here to steal your white cat because she wanted it.” I thanked him for the information, went to the woman’s house, and sure enough, there was my cat that had been missing for two days! Just three weeks later, my black cat, which was about 4 weeks old, went missing. I searched everywhere, and then went to my original informant. As I rounded the corner to the boy’s house, he saw me, and stuffed something behind his back. I asked him, “I think someone has taken my new baby cat. Have you seen him anywhere?” As he shook his head “no,” a meow came from his back. His face dropped, he bowed his head, and handed me my cat.

I have often asked myself, “How do children know that something is wrong if they are never taught?” Romans chapter 1 tells us that the law of God is seared on the conscience of men, so that they have no excuse in the day of judgment. Here in Mexico, many parents allow their children to steal. The philosophy is simple, really: if you are not with your stuff, then it’s fair game. Parents who have not been taught the right way to live do not have the necessary means to teach their children how to live rightly. So hubcaps are swiped from parked cars, money is stolen from a misplaced purse, and food is swiped from an empty kitchen. Yet still, the children know that the act of stealing is wrong; they do not, however, know a different life.

A proverb by King Solomon states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” The choice to train the children about the laws of God has left us with much heartbreak. We are one family encouraging them to break the current of a culture that encourages delinquency. Many parents are awed at the discipline we hold with children who visit our home, how the obey us and show respect, but that respect is only at face value, and when we leave the home, we expect the door to be ajar upon our arrival – and it always is. It is difficult to love the children in the morning, and in the afternoon, know that they are lying to my face or that they have only visited my home to scan for something to steal and sell. Still, we fight to love them. If anything, it is the only true Godly love they will ever know.