Children as young as five are learning about things I didn’t learn about until at least high school. The sweet window of a child’s innocence keeps getting smaller and smaller. 

There’s no denying modern technology hastens the loss of their innocence, but now that millions of children are being homeschooled for the first time, I wonder if might stave it off a bit longer. What parent doesn’t want to shield their child from this world’s ugliness as long as they can?

I remember my first day of high school. I was thirteen. Our homeroom teacher started with an ice-breaker question. She asked us (in alphabetical order) to describe ourselves with an adjective starting with the first letter of our last name. 

I was the first “H.” My maiden name was Huber, the last name of the girl sitting next to me was Huebler. “I’m going to use ‘happy,’” she whispered. “So think of something different for yourself.”

And honestly, I did try to think of something different, but my turn came around too soon and I froze up and quietly answered, “Happy. I’m happy.”

I got a murderous glance from Huebler, forcing her to think fast for a different adjective. “Horror,” she finally answered. “I am a horror.” 

The room erupted in laughter. Boys asked for her phone number

I couldn’t fathom why she got the response she did.

At dinner that night, I asked my parents, “Why would people laugh at me if I described myself as a ‘horror?’”

My older brother howled. 

My parents looked on the verge of laughter, too. But they knew I was genuinely clueless and finally answered, “Because a whore is a woman of ill-repute.”

Ill-repute? What in the heck was a woman of ill-repute?

My dad asked, “What would make you even think of describing yourself that way?”

I told them what had happened in homeroom, how we had to use an adjective that started with the first letter of our last name to describe ourselves. How I stole the adjective from the girl next to me. How everyone laughed at her when she said she was a horror. That boys started asking her for her phone number.

They ended up having to explain what a “woman of ill-repute” was, and I was sorry I asked. It made me feel sick and sad. It made me sick that all those boys were asking for her phone number and sad to think there were girls out there who did that stuff to get them that awful moniker. 

A chunk of innocence lost, and as I got older more and more of that innocence got chipped away.

Remember the Sunday school song, “Be careful little eyes you see.. little ears what you hear…little hands what you do…little feet where you go…little heart whom you trust?” Once something is seen, heard, said, or done, it can’t be undone. Guilt and shame can immobilize us, but the “Father up above…looking down in love” provided a way to wash away that guilt and shame— His name is Jesus. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

                          “With His blood Has has saved me, with His power He has raised me—

                                    To God be the glory, for the things He has done.”

                                                                                                              —from “My Tribute”