Judgmental People

I saw a news story today about a local teen who is missing and it mentioned there was a gun and ammunition missing from the house. I made the mistake of reading some of the comments, hoping to see that he’d been found safe. Last update I saw he was still missing but it was what I read in the comments that blew me away. So many people bashing the child and his parents at a time when all they need is prayer and support. I feel for these parents. People were criticizing them and mocking them because he had access to a gun. You don’t know the story. I don’t know the story but what I do know is these people need prayer right now. And help locating their child who is in need of help.
I’ve been open about Kaleb’s suicide. Unknown to us he had figured out a six digit code to a fireproof gun safe. We didn’t know he knew the code or obviously we would have changed it. But that doesn’t help us now. He gained access to a gun and ammunition. Does that make us poor parents? No. (In my opinion) We own guns. Does that make us poor parents? No (in my opinion) we use guns for a variety of things including protection, putting meat in the freezer and as a hobby. The gun didn’t take itself out of the safe and shoot Kaleb. He knew gun safety. He’s learned it from an early age.
We grew up in the south. I don’t know many people who didn’t have a gun cabinet (not safe) in their house or their grandparents house. We knew better than to touch those guns unless we wanted our butts warmed up. We grew up without car seats and sometimes even seatbelts in vehicles. But we used them with our children religiously.
We do everything as parents that we can to protect our children. Vaccinations, car seats, gun safes, teaching them to use a cross walk and look both ways. Before we judge others based on a news story maybe we need to just pray for them. Whether we believe in the right to bear arms or not when someone’s child is missing it’s not the time to bash their parenting skills or their beliefs. Why not take the time to volunteer and go help look for him instead of using social media as a platform to voice your beliefs and find fault in others. It’s not our place to judge. (And yes I realize the hypocrisy in talking about people using social media as a platform to voice their beliefs because I do it regularly). Hopefully most of the people reading this can understand the difference in trying to help others and not trying to tear them down. And I’m posting this on my personal page not a public news story. That’s my 2 cents for what it’s worth. I know how those parents must be feeling from personal experience even though my period of not knowing what happened to my child was a lot shorter than theirs. I pray they have a positive outcome and find their child alive and are able to get him help.