Childhood Lessons

Have you ever really thought about how breakable life is? We fasten seat belts, wear helmets, stop at stop-signs, look both ways before crossing the street and go about our lives as if we never knew a different way of living. Lesson parents teach very clearly in order instill a respect for our own lives, and the lives of others. It is ingrained in us from childhood and we practice it until the day that we die.
Just like our bodies are breakable, even more so are our spirits. It's in that fragile bed of vulnerability that we trust those that raise us to best decide what to plant on our hearts and minds. We hold out for hope, faith, purpose, pride, respect and love. I wonder though, how many millions of children in this world will never have that?
What would life have been like had you been born on a different continent, in a different home, in a different body, in different skin? Have you ever really spent the time to think about that? I've been struggling with these thoughts for weeks now. I'm not sure if it is the state of the world overall, or the immense guilt I feel in not being able to change it, but my heart is heavy with the weight of it. I am ashamed at the lack of help I have given.... we have given, at the blindness I have ignorantly lived in for far to long.
What would happne if we taught our children what it means to live in a third-world country and what we can do to help? If we taught our children the value of a dollar in our country and the power that same dollar has in others, I wonder how much more money would be flowing to countries that are far worse off than our own?
There is something we all can do. There is always a way to help- we just have to believe in it, practice it, and teach it to our children. Find a way to give beyond what you already do. Pocket change can be a child's survival.
If you need direction on how or where to give- look to your right- you'll find all the resources you need.