Do you remember junior high? I do. For my years in 6th-8th grade I was in 3 different schools. Lyndsey Middle School for 6th. Central Middle School for 7th. Whitman Junior High for 8th. My family moved a lot - we were a military family. The reason I have been thinking of this is because I’m trying to remember when my innocence was lost. I know that there was a point in my life when I wasn’t aware that the people around me could do drugs, smoke, or drink. There was a time when I wasn’t aware that kids in my school might be in gangs, or might try and shoot people in my school (that actually happened). I didn’t think the guys in my gym class could be capable of gang-jumping my older brother and breaking a bunch of his teeth. I never knew that my friend Rob would offer me marijuana, and that a girl I liked could want me to come over to her house after school when her parents weren’t home (I didn’t go, by the way).

There was a point in my life when I wasn’t aware of all the bad stuff. However, sadly, there was a point when my eyes were opened and I realized all of this bad stuff not only existed, but existed in my school. I went to a party at my friend Mike’s house in 8th grade and everyone was smoking and drinking. My friend Wilbert, from gym class, is the one who broke my brother’s teeth. My friend Lupe had his head slammed repeatedly into a urinal in the bathroom. In 7th grade, while I was at my locker, some guy ran by and punched me in the head and ran away (he didn’t even go to my school). One day there was a shooting in my school - not the kind you hear about on the news though - it was a gang shooting at the kind of school where gang shootings weren’t huge news.

I don’t know when my eyes were opened and my innocence was lost, but I know it happened in junior high.

Working with junior high students can break your heart sometimes. I know some kids whose parents still pick out their clothes. I have other kids who get in trouble at school because they took drugs. Some junior high kids take comic books to school, others take semi-automatic weapons. Some are having sex, others don’t even like girls yet. Some still look like elementary school kids, others already have to shave everyday. I even saw in the news that drug dealers are now making fruit flavored/scented drugs to appeal to younger people.

I know of a kid who saw some pornography for the first time. He didn’t even know what he was looking at, but he knew that it was wrong. He confessed to his parents, but he didn’t know why. While I watched him bear-hug his mom, soaking her shirt with his tears, I knew that I was watching his innocence dissolve. It broke my heart. A few months later I found out that he didn’t know what a child molester was. As it was explained to him I could tell that the innocence was almost gone. Soon I know he’ll come into contact with other things that might infect his youthfulness even more, and he’ll be forced to grow up with the realities of all the sin in the world.

I’m crying a little right now as I type these words.

In this life we all lose our childlike innocence at some point. There was a time, though, when everything was black and white, right and wrong, good and bad. Life was easy then. Sadly, that part of life doesn’t last very long, and the realities of a fallen world tear the purity from our hearts.

It reminds me of something Jesus said. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." That verse makes me wonder if, as they lose their innocence, they are also losing their ability to see God. Jesus also said, with a child standing by him, "I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me."

There’s no way to keep a young person from seeing the reality of this world, but I think it is possible to be good role models to show them that even when the world is at its worst, we can show them that the world doesn’t have to infect us with sin, but that we can infect the world with God’s love. We’ll never be able to be children again, but we can humble ourselves like children and love the world with all we have, and do our very best to bless the junior high kids as their innocence is fading.