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Today's
Meditation:
"Save our children"? It's a
frightening thought that they may need saving, but as a
teacher, I see every day that she's right. Save them
from what?, you may ask. The list is rather
lengthy: Save them from the addictive behaviors they
learn from us, from the low self-esteem that constant
criticism has brought them, from the lack of caring that
they've learned from us, from the self-destructive
behaviors that they've learned, from the desire to deceive
and hide that they've also learned from us.
Most of the behaviors that we've grown up with, positive,
negative and neutral, we learned from our parents or other
adults. For those who had nurturing, loving parents,
sometimes it's difficult to understand how people can grow
up with so much anger and fear in their hearts. But
that's just what many of us grew up with due to the
behaviors of our parents, which included alcohol and drug
abuse, violence, lack of caring, lack of respect, lack of
nurturing, lack of money for the basic needs, and many
other problems that taught us that the world is a place to
be feared, that lack is a way of life, that anyone against
us must be put in their place.
If we're ever going to turn this world around, we must be
patient and start with the children. We must nurture
them and teach them about love and respect, and we must
treat them with dignity and respect. The world won't
change in a day, but if we don't start trying to help our
kids out, the world shall never change.
There are many, many people who have devoted their lives
to trying to help children to grow up into healthy, happy
adults. These people do great work in jobs that are extremely trying and that
lead to very early
burn-out. They need our help. They need us to
help the kids in our lives to grow up with encouragement,
love, and strong role models who are willing to share
their lives and their thoughts with some kids. It
really is the only way that the human world ever will
transform into a kinder, more gentle place.
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Questions to
consider:
Why is it so easy to keep out of our minds just what's
happening to the children in our world?
Why do so few parents seem to understand what it takes to
be effective parents?
How was your life when you were growing up? If it
was good, are you sharing that same kind of life with some
kids? If it was bad, are you trying to help some
kids avoid that kind of life?
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