At the end of last year, I did a post on one passage out of the Bible about divorce called “A Glimpse into God’s View of Divorce.” Over the course of the last week, I have been doing some additional research on the impact of divorce on kids for a series of articles I intend to write in the near future. I feel like God has laid it on my heart to dig into this issue and specifically to give some thought to how do we, as those engaged in children’s ministry, address this issue and support these kids. I have to tell you though that my heart breaks with each article I read and each study I examine. The percentages and the methods are all secondary to the pain and turmoil caused by parents divorcing. One study in particular sticks out in my head that concluded that kids of divorced parents have more psychological problems than kids who lose a parent to death. Personally, I have no direct experience with divorce, but I do know what it is like to lose a parent at a young age (my mother died shortly after my sixth birthday). To read that millions of kids each year are experiencing pain and heartache and long-lasting consequences even greater than that just rips at my heart, and has from time to time over the course of the last couple of weeks brought me to tears. As the community of Christ, it is time that we stopped side stepping this issue under the pretense of not offending parents and started to address the even bigger issue of the impact this is having on the children. As I was driving home last night, I had my Ipod on shuffle, and it just happened (read “God thing”) to land on a song from Matthew West that I would like to share with you:
I would challenge you today to spend some time praying for marriages and praying for children of divorce. I would further challenge you to find a way to help the kids in your church emotionally, physically, financially and spiritually who have or are suffering through this gut wrenching travesty. It is time that we serve as the Body of Christ to these kids who oftentimes are left with nowhere else to turn!
Today we continue our detailed look at a presentation given by Jill Nelson at the 2007 Children Desiring God Conference entitled “Presenting the Gospel to Children.” In my last post, I introduced the series (including links to both the 
