In the wake of the terrible tragedy that occurred this week in the small Texas town of Uvalde, Dr. Paula interrupts her current LIV2DAY series on toxins in the home. In this episode, Dr. Paula shares her perspective on the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary and opens up on the topic of “making sense” of things that simply don’t make sense. Grief is a natural feeling for all of us and unimaginable events causing human loss, connect us to each other and our humanity. As a former high school teacher, a current school board member, a doctor of theology and as a Christian, her position on the need for God in our schools is unwaivering. She walks us through four key reasons why this need is more pressing and real than possibly ever before in our nation’s history.
Transcript
Hey, everyone, this is Dr.
Speaker:Paula McDonald, and I'm going to take a break in my regular programming.
Speaker:I was talking about top five offenders and products that we use, and I was going to have another show owe today with that same vein.
Speaker:But in light of what's happened here in Texas, I really felt like I needed to speak on this topic and pour into this horrific situation that has affected everyone around the world.
Speaker:When we hear of things happening to our children and our teachers, where it should be a safe place, it affects us at very, very deep core levels.
Speaker:So I'm going to take a break today from my normal show and really speak into this.
Speaker:And I come from it from this topic or into this topic.
Speaker:As a former teacher, I myself am raising a fourth grader right now, and I'm on our school board in our little Texas town.
Speaker:And so just the unimaginable thought of hearing this news and what these parents in this community have gone through, it just rocks you to your core.
Speaker:And so how I handle things like this is I typically, of course, go into deep prayer and grieving.
Speaker:But then I like to write.
Speaker:Writing helps me sort through my emotions and my feelings.
Speaker:And so yesterday, I wrote a blog that says why more than ever, we need God in our schools.
Speaker:And it's at such a time as this where we all try to sit back and make sense of something so horrific, but there's no sense to be made of it.
Speaker:It's hard to imagine evil, this type of evil that could go in and shoot up a school just because they're mad at the world.
Speaker:It makes no sense to those of us who are trying to sort it out.
Speaker:So our nation is mourning.
Speaker:Our world is mourning over this small town.
Speaker:And we ask ourselves over and over again why.
Speaker:And as we grapple with our emotions, the numbness of this senseless act, and how these families, the classmates, the teachers in this community will ever pick up the pieces.
Speaker:These thoughts continuously flood our minds.
Speaker:And for those of us who do have a firm belief in Jesus Christ, we know he is our source, our strength and our stronghold during times like this.
Speaker:And those without Christ must turn to another method to cope and sort out the human emotion and the mental anguish that affects both believers and nonbelievers.
Speaker:And for me, as a believer, I honestly do not know how someone without a strong faith navigates the process of grieving and dealing with a serious illness or accident, or even walking through the aftermath of a divorce or a relationship break up when they don't have that stronghold Jesus Christ to really cling to.
Speaker:And so, having been through each of these personal situations in my own life, my faith has grounded me in a way that nothing else could have done.
Speaker:And this doesn't mean that I didn't hurt badly, that I wasn't scared and angry and frustrated and depressed.
Speaker:But what it did mean is that walking through every situation in my life with my trusted savior, I knew he was there.
Speaker:He is never changing, and he understands my heart like no one else.
Speaker:And so as we walk through another horrific school shooting, I once again question the why and ask the questions you are likely asking as well.
Speaker:And the bottom line is this that this sort of incident reflects actions by those who are lost without hope and most likely without Christ.
Speaker:And often we learn that these people are dealing with deep depression issues, drug abuse, mental health issues, child abuse, so many underlying issues that we don't even know about.
Speaker:And sadly, we are witnessing the demise of the family unit as the divorce rate escalates and the moral fabric of our society continues to crumble.
Speaker:We have seen a rise in these mass murder incidents, and I'm not saying it's all because of the broken family unit.
Speaker:I come from a broken family unit, and I too have experienced the heartbreak of divorce.
Speaker:But what we're seeing are broken people and broken families who have not placed the one Christ in the middle of their lives to be the person they turn to, to be the moral code that they follow.
Speaker:When there is no moral code or people believe there is no moral code, then anything goes.
Speaker:Anything goes, and we're seeing it.
Speaker:So as a former high school teacher, I know first hand what a classroom environment is like and how close you get to your students and how much you truly care about each and every one of those precious lives.
Speaker:It's not always easy.
Speaker:There are many difficult students that we deal with, but you still care about them.
Speaker:You still rack your brain on a daily basis to figure out a way to reach those difficult students, to try to figure them out so that you can help them, so you can help them move on.
Speaker:And we don't know what lies behind their personal lives.
Speaker:We don't know what's going on in their home lives each and every day that they walk into our classroom.
Speaker:We just do our job by doing our best to teach them and create a safe environment for which they will learn.
Speaker:Because teachers don't just teach a subject.
Speaker:I didn't just teach biology.
Speaker:My classroom was about how we treat one another, being fair, working together as a team, especially on science projects.
Speaker:There are so many different aspects to what we do in the classroom, and teachers grieve.
Speaker:When we know that our students are hurt or grieving, we grieve with them and we celebrate their successes.
Speaker:And these teachers provide stability that so many students do not have at home.
Speaker:They know each and every day when they show up in that classroom, they know what's going to happen.
Speaker:They learn that teacher and they learn the teacher's ways, and it does offer stability.
Speaker:So I am not suggesting that every teacher must be a devout Christian.
Speaker:But what I'm going to say here on why we need God back into our schools is because we need sound biblical principles as the backbone of our schools, regardless if they are public or private institutions.
Speaker:So I've kind of narrowed this down into four main reasons why we need God back in our classrooms.
Speaker:Because I can promise you right now, there are kids and teachers all over this country who are in prayer, and they are talking about Christ and Jesus in their schools right now because they need him, because they need answers, because they need stability.
Speaker:So number one reason we need to bring God back in the classroom is stability.
Speaker:We all need stability in our lives.
Speaker:Christ in His Word.
Speaker:They are the only 100% stable forces that we can ever count on in our life.
Speaker:When we are grounded in Christian principles such as love, kindness, Grace, healing, forgiveness, self control, faithfulness, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, and respect well, all of these are fruits of the Spirit that are character traits everyone needs more of.
Speaker:And in reality, none of these characteristics in any way would be traits that anyone would not want to be taught in the schools.
Speaker:Each of these Goddirected traits provides us with the basis for good, solid character building behavior.
Speaker:Number two reason why we need to bring God back when the common values that are grounded in Christian principles are lost.
Speaker:Well, the fabric of a society becomes more and more of a slippery slope, because, as I said earlier, when anything goes, where do you draw the line? We are certainly seeing this playing out in our society right now when we have children questioning basic logic such as the definition of a male or a female.
Speaker:This is the epitome of confusion in young minds in our society and as a basic God taught value of marriage between a male and a female becomes a taboo subject.
Speaker:Once again, children have no stable value foundation upon which to build any sort of solid foundation.
Speaker:And it then becomes a more and more slippery slope with each and every topic that becomes more undefined.
Speaker:So we have stability and value.
Speaker:And the third reason to bring God back into the schools is basic human respect.
Speaker:As we fall away from biblical principles, we are witnessing the de valuing of humans in general.
Speaker:In fact, there are more commercials about the abuse of animals than of the abuse of children or of the ongoing, ever increasing child trafficking situation.
Speaker:You don't see many commercials on that.
Speaker:Now don't get me wrong, I love animals.
Speaker:However, they do not hold a higher regard than human life.
Speaker:We should all be filled with grief and concern for the loss of life through drugs, abortion, child abuse and trafficking.
Speaker:And when we teach our children to respect human life over everything else.
Speaker:We help them to understand the importance of life.
Speaker:God created life, and when we hold that life dear, this principle goes very far.
Speaker:And Additionally, when we have human respect, we also respect our own Godgiven lives.
Speaker:And when we recognize who we are in Him in Christ, we never will doubt our own identity because God does not make mistakes.
Speaker:I urge you to go and read Psalm 139.
Speaker:One four if you ever believe that you are a mistake.
Speaker:The fourth reason that we need to bring God back into the classroom is love.
Speaker:We all know the world.
Speaker:We all know the word love has been overused.
Speaker:But we love a movie, we love food.
Speaker:We love this or that.
Speaker:But the love that I am talking about is the love of Christ that only he can offer.
Speaker:Jesus told us to love one another as he loved us in John 1334.
Speaker:And when we understand what this really means, we will treat people differently.
Speaker:Christ loved us so much that he gave his life for us in order for us to be with Him someday in heaven.
Speaker:Love heals and love guides us in how we are to live our lives.
Speaker:True love that only comes from Him is the answer.
Speaker:His love is missing in our schools because we allowed our governing bodies to remove God from the schools.
Speaker:His absence is missing and it needs to be placed back into every single classroom and many people will take this podcast and try to use it against me that I hate certain groups of people.
Speaker:Well, this is not true.
Speaker:Just because I disagree with the slippery slope of anything outside of God's guidelines does not mean that I hate those who choose to ignore his principles.
Speaker:I pray for those who don't know the love of Christ.
Speaker:Their souls are lost and they are doomed to an eternal life without Him.
Speaker:That is the Biblical truth that provides me with the security of eternal life with Him, we must bring God fearing, solid teaching back into our school.
Speaker:We desperately need prayer back in our classrooms, and we need to be teaching biblical character traits.
Speaker:We cannot indoctrinate our students with the ill logical garbage of gender confusion, the misuse of pronouns, and the blatant disrespect for human life.
Speaker:The only way we will take our schools back and our communities back is to bring God back into the forefront.
Speaker:He belongs there and he will bring the stability, the values, the respect, and the love that we all desperately need.
Speaker:So as we all work through what has happened, the way I handle this is going to God, pouring my heart out to Him, asking Him to help me make sense of this.
Speaker:He is the only stability that I have regarding this situation.
Speaker:My first instinct was I want to jump in the car and I want to run down there and offer prayer support.
Speaker:However, I can.
Speaker:I just want to let those people know that there are people out there, all of us who are praying for them and prayer goes through all time and space.
Speaker:So when you're at your home, wherever you are praying, know that it is powerful and that it is definitely making a difference.
Speaker:You guys, as we go into this Memorial day weekend we have a lot to be thankful for.
Speaker:We live in a free country and if you're listening from an area that you aren't in a free country, continue to pray.
Speaker:God is breaking down walls.
Speaker:He is exposing a lot right now and so I just urge you to don't lose your faith, don't lose your confidence in Christ, continue to dig into his word, lean on your fellow believers, get together with your prayer groups and just stay on your knees in deep prayer and he will guide us all out of the darkness.
Speaker:So thank you all for listening.
Speaker:Thank you for allowing me to come on here and speak a heartfelt message because I know so many people are dealing with this and I will next week come back to you with our normal program.
Speaker:But until then live this day fully.
Speaker:Don't forget to live even when everything is falling apart around you.
Speaker:Don't forget to be in this moment and live your life and go out there today and do something for someone else.
Speaker:Pay it forward and you will find such a joy in the smallest of acts.
Speaker:You guys, thank you thank you for listening and I will see you or I will speak with you and be with you again next week.
Speaker:Big love to you.