Do we hear the silent cries?
As I noted in Saturday’s post, the High School that my kids attend has had trouble lately. There was a shooting threat on Friday. Parents were pulling their kids out of the school and the football game scheduled for that night was cancelled, due to the threats of violence at the game.
It made me angry that someone can threaten the safety of my kids, the safety of everyone. It made me angry, but it also makes me very sad. For what is going on inside the person who is threatening this violence. What is in their heart? What pain must they feel if they want to shoot up a whole school? We hear the threats, but what about the things that aren’t being said. The silent cries of the heart.
Do we hear the cries? The cries of the A+ student and beauty queen. Oh it must be so nice to be them and have everything going for them. What a life they are living, wish I had it that easy.
We don’t see them behind the bedroom door. We don’t see the cuts of the knife hidden beneath their clothes. We see their pasted on smile that is hiding a thousand tears.
What about the star athlete who is on their way to winning a scholarship. We smile and pat them on the back thinking all is well. No one knows the truth behind the bandage on their arm. The story behind their 2nd degree burn, a burn they gave themselves due to all the pain hidden inside of them.
There are hurting people all around us, do we hear their cries?
Emotional pain affects the young and the old, but right now I am specifically thinking of the young people in our society. One out of every 12 teenagers engage in self harm, which usually consists of cutting or burning themselves! One in 12! That statistic turns my stomach.
These kids are hurting so badly that they inflict pain on themselves, to try to forget the inner pain that they are dealing with! They also do it to see if they still feel. Sometimes they are hurting so badly that they turn off their emotions. Self-harming becomes a test to them. A test to see if they really do have any feelings left, or have they become as numb as a machine.
42% of teens will try drugs! 78% of teens have engaged in underage drinking! These statistics are sickening as well! These are recent statistics for American teens, I don’t know how other countries would compare. Would be interesting to know.
The signs are all around, teens are hurting! We can debate about guns all we want and yes I do have a stance on where I stand on gun control, BUT….the facts are this. No matter where you stand on gun control, that is not the main problem. The problem is having young people that have such strong emotions or pain and anger built up inside that the only solutions they see are shooting innocent people! Or hurting themselves in anyway they can. Anything to make them forget their pain.
Do we hear their silent cries? The voice deep inside them that doesn’t know how to explain their pain.
The school is calling a meeting tomorrow night on how to deal with the threats of violence, but I am curious, will anyone raise the question on how to help our hurting teenagers? Will anyone be a voice for the many silent cries?
Like this:
Like Loading...