Food for Thought

I have had the following conversation with all of my children at one time or another as they headed off to their government schools for their daily indoctrination.
"Some of your friends did not get dinner last night. Some of them did not get breakfast this morning. Some of them listened to their parents argue and fight. They don't have new school clothes. There are students at your school that are being abused. Physically, sexually, emotionally. They know that terror. School is their safe place. And for others school has never been safe. They are lonely and feel lost and invisible. They know despair. They need you. They need your smile or a thumbs up. They need you to look into their eyes and SEE them. Really see them.
Make today about others and not about you. Please look around and find someone sitting alone at lunch and join them. Find them at recess. Ask them to play. Please say kind words. Please THANK your fellow students, custodians, lunch workers, bus driver. THANK them for taking care of you. Let's pray for everyone today."
And they know. They know that as a child their mom endured some of those things. They know that I speak from experience. And I send them off to make a difference.