An eleven year old boy told his little four-year old sister good-bye, then hanged himself in Modesto, California. One just cannot help but wonder why so many young children are committing suicide. There are a number of possibilities.

False Ideas About Death

The influence of television, video games, and movies may create false ideas concerning the finality of death. Younger children may be thinking they can kill themselves, and then get up and walk away. As the fad of suicide grows, more children will take their lives. We must urgently teach the biblical view of death.

Or is it possible that a little child might believe he can be raised from the dead—immediately? When we teach our children concerning the miracles of the Bible, we should be careful to include the facts of the Scriptures; that is, that we do not know when the resurrection will be, and that miracles had a special purpose and do not occur today (Jn. 20:30-31; 1 Cor. 13; Eph. 4:7-16).

So many today are suffering from low self-esteem. A child of a Christian couple committed suicide a few years ago because he could not bear cruel teasing by his peers about being overweight. We must do all we can to instill within our fragile children a sense of being loved and valued. They must understand that God—and people of sensibility—do not look upon the outside of a person (1 Sam. 16:6-7). God is no respecter of persons (Greek: prospon faces or countenance; cf. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words , pp. 58; 850-851; cf. Acts 10:34-35). Each person is valued far more by God than is the entire world (Mt. 16:26; Jn. 3:16).

One wonders whether the boy in Modesto lived in an environment of hostility, abuse, or drug addiction. Did his care-givers constantly use guilt to control him? Was his guilt-burden so heavy that he could not bear it? Parents who belittle, run down, or otherwise verbally abuse their children may wound them in such a way that their youngsters may resort to suicide, or be scarred for life. We, of course, are not discounting the possibility of some mental incapacity.

Wisdom will not fall out of the sky as manna from above.

As parents, we often feel we are incompetent, but we are instructed to pray for wisdom (Jas. 1:5). Wisdom will not fall out of the sky as manna from above. We must find it by searching the Scriptures, learning from observation, and looking to others—even our own parents, for they learned from their mistakes. If you are given unbidden advice, do not be too prideful to consider it. Wisdom comes in different ways. Be ever willing to learn and be determined to change when necessary.

While we all will make some mistakes as we attempt to rear our offspring in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4), may we never be guilty of causing them to forfeit their lives—either in this life or the one to come.