Children are very much in our thoughts at this time of the year, not only for the excitement and wonder they bring to Christmas, but also because the birth of our Savior reminds us of the potential that each child carries bundled up within itself.

All children arrive with the mystery of what they can be. We know enough of human potential and human failings that we cannot always assume the future from the circumstances of the present. That is one reason why the humble birth of our Savior almost 20 centuries ago touches us.Sadly, however, not all the news this year is encouraging for children. Within the past month some sobering studies found many children are in grave danger.

A recent report from the U.N.'s International Labor Organization estimated that 250 million children work full time in developing countries. That's twice as many as previous estimates, and part of the reason for the increase is that for the first time, children under 10 were included.

Another report, "The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children," found 200,000 child soldiers in the world. We've actually seen pictures of them in news reports: youngsters barely big enough to hold their automatic weapons. The report also said that over the past 10 years, some 2 million children were killed in wars.

The author of the second report, Graca Machel, wrote, "More and more of the world is being sucked into a desolate moral vacuum. This is a space devoid of the most basic human values. . . . There are few further depths to which humanity can sink."

The figures are shocking and should alarm us all. That children must work in some countries is sad in itself, but that they are mercenaries learning no useful skills not involving a gun is a betrayal of society.

The more industrialized countries cannot be too smug in reading these reports. Violence committed by children and hurting children is almost an urban epidemic. And in an age of great affluence, one in seven children in this country is on welfare.

President Gordon B. Hinckley recently addressed this problem, where murder is the second highest cause of death among youth. He warned, "Societies have had and will have pornography, immorality, and other problems. But we cannot continue this trend that we are presently experiencing without some kind of catastrophe overtaking us." (Ensign, September 1996). He said he was more concerned about the moral deficit among countries than about their budget deficits.

It's discouraging to read such figures. It's also tempting to think we can do nothing in face of such daunting statistics. But that problem always faces men and women of good will. The response is: what we can do, we will do - in fact, we must do.

A moral vacuum cannot be resolved if we are too timid to offer moral solutions. A moral deficit won't be overcome if we don't add the weight of our convictions and the authority of Church teachings into the equation.

The work begins within our own families, among those whom we have the obligation to teach and instruct. "Every child is a product of a home," wrote President Hinckley. "Societies are having terrible youth problems, but I am convinced that they have a greater parent problem. I am grateful that we of the Church have for a long time taught and are teaching and spending a substantial part of our resources to fortify the homes of our people."

Each generation must instruct the next. The ancient wisdom expressed in Proverbs puts it this way: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. 22:6) A more modern paraphrasing of the same thought is "Men and women are what happens to boys and girls."

The gospel's message to care for children is very straightforward. When asked by His disciples who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus called a little child to Him and told them, ". . . Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. . . . And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matt. 18:1-6.) It was a harsh judgment from the Creator of the world.

Likewise, the Lord reaffirmed their special status in a direct revelation to Joseph Smith in 1830: "But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten" (D&C 29: 46.)

When Christ was born, the angels sang. When our own children are born, our hearts are filled with wondering awe. We should feel that same reverence for the potential of all children, and know that they have claim upon our goodness.