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Adults escort young children through a parking lot after reports of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. (Photo credit: Newtown Bee/Shannon Hicks)

News reports coming out of Newport, CT about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have been horrifying.

  • Twenty-seven people have been confirmed dead with 20 being children.
  • Three additional people where injured and taken to the hospital whose conditions are unknown.
  • The shooter who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound may be the son of a teacher, Nancy Lanza, who was killed today.

Some thoughts.

President Barack Obamaā€™s initial response was moving and you could see he was fighting back emotion.Ā  His words were comforting, he was ambiguous about what he plans to do to prevent such violence.Ā  That statement is of concern, but I want to put that on the backburner.Ā  Today I want to commend him for his thoughtful words.Ā  Today is not a day to talk about or debate policy.Ā  It is not an event to use for political gain.Ā  So Iā€™m not heading down that road.

Our proper response, especially those of us who know Christ, is to pray.

  1. Pray for the families of the children and teachers (and other adults) who were killed today.Ā  As a parent I can not even fathom what it would be like to lose a child in any circumstance let alone losing a child in such a senseless act.
  2. Pray for the family of the shooter.Ā  I canā€™t even imagine the stigma that will be attached to them ā€“ wrongly since they had nothing to do with the shooterā€™s behavior.
  3. Pray for those who are wounded, pray that God would bring healing.Ā  Pray that God would guide the hands of the doctors and medical professionals as they treat those in their care.
  4. Pray for the first responders, it must be emotionally traumatic for EMTs and police officers to have to deal with situations such as that.Ā  Pray for their emotional strength and healing.
  5. Pray for the kids who survived who should never have had to witness anything like that.Ā  Pray that God would protect their minds and hearts and they process what is unthinkable.
  6. Pray for counselors and clergy who will bring comfort to those who are hurting after this.
  7. Pray for the community at large.
  8. We should mourn with those who mourn.

Those of who can and have the ability to serve and to donate to help meet needs present in the community in the days ahead.

Then we can talk about policy, but not today.

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