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Protection and Safety for Children 

By Steven Kaplan 

(Note the Parents: The following article is written for children, but it is strongly recommended that all parents review this material and discuss it in detail with their children.) 

 

It is very important for everyone to learn how to protect themselves and to be safe. 

We are all living in a World that can seem very dangerous. We all need to learn that God can and will protect us, but we also need to learn to be careful. The best way to be safe is to talk to your parents about how you feel. If you are scared or worried, your parents can help you. 

When you were very young, someone had to watch you all the time to be sure you were safe. As a young child, you did not know it was dangerous to do certain things.  

For example, you could not understand that it can be dangerous to play in the street. Perhaps your parents may have told you not to play in the street, but you did not know why. If you did not listen to them, they may have yelled at you or perhaps even spanked you. It did not feel good, but you learned. 

As you grew older, you learned that there may be cars in a street that are very dangerous. In fact, a car can kill. But you also learned that some streets may be safer that others. A quiet street in your neighborhood with very little traffic is not as dangerous as a busy street with a lot of traffic. If you are old enough, your parents may even allow you to play within a quiet street, as long as you pay attention. 

Since you are older now, you know what an approaching car sounds like. On a quiet street, most of the cars approaching will be moving slowly, so you can get out of the way. As long as you are careful and cautious, it may now be safe to play in a place that could have been dangerous before for someone younger. 

When you are very young, your parents must watch over you all the time to be sure that you are safe. As you get older, they do not constantly need to be there, but you still need protections. Our world can be a very dangerous place, even for an adult. As a child, it is very important to follow the rules and listen to your parents. As you grow older, you will continue to learn how to protect yourself better and always be safe. 

Even though our World can seem very scary, especially when we hear about very bad things happening to very good people, it is important to not always be afraid. The best way to learn to stop being afraid is to ask God to protect you. 

God is like a wise parent, watching over us. If we ask God to protect us, the protection is always there. But sometimes, we need to learn something. Just like your parents may sometimes allow you to play in the street now, God allows us to put ourselves in situations that can be dangerous if we do not do the right thing.  

This is so that we can learn to do the right thing. Your parents will not allow you to play in the street unless they think that you are old enough and mature enough to get out of the way of any traffic that approaches. In life, God allows us to do things so that we can learn, even if we have to feel pain in order to learn it. 

For example, if you are told as a young child to not touch a hot stove because it will burn, you may have not understood what “burn” means. If you ignored the warning and put your hand on the stove, it will hurt, but you will learn that a hot stove should not be touched.  

If you are young and you burned your hand, you may think that it is the stove’s fault that you are hurt. You may wish that the stove would just go away and not be there anymore. You might think that the stove is bad because it hurts. But this is not true. In fact, a hot stove is very useful and can cook food that we enjoy eating. When we learn to be safe and careful, we can then use a stove without the pain. 

In life, God wants what is best for us. God wants us to learn without being hurt. But sometimes, we choose differently. Because we have Free Will, we are free to choose to learn something that may be painful. 

Of course, God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He can protect us if it does not interfere with these lessons that we need to learn. But we must ask for God to protect us. 

There are many ways to ask for God’s Protection. You can use your own imagination to create the best protection for you. You can imagine being surrounding by White Light. You can imagine God’s Angels near you and watching over you. You can ask for God to help you increase your intuition. 

Intuition is being able to know something might happen before it happens. Trust your feelings. If something does not feel safe, do not do it. If you are in a place that does not feel comfortable, leave. If you are with people that make you feel bad, tell your parents (if you can), or try to go away from them. 

It is very important to listen to your parents. Parents have more experience in life. They may already know about some of the things in life that can be very painful. Because of this, your parents may help you stop doing something that could have hurt you. Talk to your parents about how you feel. 

Be very careful with strangers. A stranger is someone that you do not know well. Just because you may have seen them before, they can still be a stranger to you. Be sure that your parents are aware of them, especially if they give you an uncomfortable feeling. 

Unfortunately, there are people in our world who want to hurt children. Therefore, you have to be extra careful in everything you do.  

There are some people in this World that will ACT like they are being nice to you, but really they are only pretending. They might offer you candy or something else good to eat. It may look good, but they could be just trying to be friendly with you while they really want to hurt you. Never eat anything from someone you do not know, unless your parents say it is OK. 

Remember that an adult does not usually need the help of a child. If a stranger asks you for help, do not help them. If they are looking for a puppy, or they need help with directions, or they say that your parents want you to go with them, do not listen. Go away from them and discuss it with your parents. 

If you use a computer and go on the internet, be very careful. Never give your personal information out to anyone on the computer. If they are your friend, they should already know your personal things. (Anyway, you can always talk to them later if they need to know something.)  

When you are using a computer to send a message, you cannot see the person at the other computer. You do not really know for sure. They could be an adult that is not telling the truth. They could pretending to be a child when they are really just looking for children that they can hurt.  

Tell your parents if anyone does bad things on the computer. If someone sends you bad words or pictures, they need to be stopped. Your parents can help you decide what to do. 

Your parents always need to know where you are and what you are doing. Even if you are playing very close to home, be sure you know that your parents know. This is the best way to be safe. 

All children need to learn to talk more to their parents about things. Your parents are not perfect. They have made mistakes before. But they love you and will always want to protect you. 

The following are some web sites that provide more information and education about this subject. Show these sites to your parents and talk to them about it. 

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (http://missingkids.com/) 

The Polly Klaas Foundation (http://pollyklaas.org/) 

The Children’s Safety Network (http://edc.org/HHD/) 

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