Like most parents out there, one of my worst nightmares / fears is losing my children while we are out in public places, and worse, them getting kidnapped. This fear was exacerbated lately when stories of children disappearing, getting kidnapped and of people attempting to kidnap kids came out on social networks and the local news.

The reality is, we live in a world where there are a lot of twisted, broken, hurting people who are walking the wrong path, and we need to do our best — especially as parents — to protect our children and prepare them for the “evils” of this world. (Of course, as parents, we also need to prepare them for our ultimate destination, i.e. heaven!).

I remember when we had just returned to the Philippines from our five year-mission assignment to Timor Leste. Our little boy was only 3 years and 8 months then. He was not so familiar yet with all the big malls we have in the Philippines (we only had small supermarkets in Timor, though there is one mall there now). We had to constantly remind him that going out in the Philippines had more “risks” as compared to Timor, and that he always had to stay close to us during trips to the mall and other places.

On one occasion though, he failed to heed our warnings. He ended up straying from hubby’s sight and getting lost!

(Photo taken from a helpful article on “What to Do if Your Child Gets Lost“)

To this day, I thank the Lord that (a) we were in a relatively small mall at the time; (b) a kind stranger helped bring him to one of the mall security guards; (c) he remembered that I was at a fast food joint on the ground level of the mall with his sister, waiting for him and his Papa; and (d) he was able to tell the security guard where we were. {oh, and (e) his guardian angel was watching over him!}

Well, you can bet your horses that that never happened again, and we became much more careful and vigilant whenever we would go out (which is not that often now, saves us a lot of money and stress! ha,ha!).

Anyway, to help my fellow parents out there who may have been in the same situation, and to prevent such things from happening to your own kids, I thought I’d round up links to some great articles on the Web that you may find worth reading:

Preventing Kids from Getting Lost
How to Prevent Your Kids from Getting Lost (and What to Do if They Get Lost Anyway) – Tips from New York Mag
Tips to Prevent Losing a Child in a Public Place – From Tukwila Reporter
Keeping Kids from Getting Lost (and What to Do if They Do) – Tips from BabyZone
Essential Safety for Kids – If a Child Gets Lost – From Netmums
Safety Tips – from Safetytat.com

Preventing Abductions / Kidnapping
Don’t Be a Victim, Protecting Yourself from Abduction – From Smart Parenting.Com.Ph
Preventing Abductions – From Kidshealth.org
How to Protect Kids from Predators / Kidnappers – From msnbc.com
Abduction Prevention – From Mama’s Health.com

I hope these help us all in keeping our precious children safe. Let’s pray for one another and our kids, shall we? (And for those who are on the wrong path, as I previously mentioned, that the Lord will enlighten them and heal them and change them!) AMEN! 😀

P.S. Watch out for another giveaway — related to this post — coming soon! 🙂