What I am about to share with you is not an original idea. I would love to take credit for it. Heck, even the woman I gleaned this information from is not its creator. I have the Bible to back me up in my following statements. My first grade teacher made a big deal about this subject as well. She impressed it upon my mind at the age of 6 and I still carry it with me to this day.
What am I talking about? Children are not kids. Babies, toddlers, middle schoolers and teenagers are not kids. A kid is a baby goat. We all know this, I hope. But if you look "kid" up in the dictionary you will find that it has been deemed an appropriate term for children. Why?
God likens His children to lambs. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd. In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus tells His disciples that God will separate the nations as the shpeherd separates the lambs from the goats. The lambs will go to His right and the goats to His left. The goats will go to "eternal punishment, but the..(lambs)..to eternal life.
The job of a goatherd is different than that of a shepherd. One leads, the other drives. We are called to shepherd our flocks, to lead and guide our little lambs.
In Psalm 127 (as elsewhere in the Old Testament) children are referred to as a blessing from God, arrows in our quivers. "Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children!" (The Message) Do you feel this way about your children? Then why defame them by calling them kids?
We must retrain ourselves. We must stop referring to our children as baby goats. They are our lambs to be led, our blessings to be received with thanks, our arrows to be honed. If you cannot remember these things at least call them sons and daughters, or children. No matter how old I get I will be my parents' child and there is no shame in that.
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