Desperately Lacking Peace

If you’re anything like me, you look at the news and it makes you cringe. There's a new shooting every few days or weeks. There's a growing disrespect for police and military. I have a growing distrust of politicians and their morals that are nowhere to be found. There are stories about the unspeakable being done to children on a daily basis. Our laws are being changed to fit our lifestyles, not our lifestyles requiring us to live up to the law. Another friend is getting divorced after years of what seemed like a great marriage. There have always been issues in the world, but I'm not sure there have ever been quite so many. 

25% of children in white families grow up in a single parent household in the United States. 42% of Hispanic or Latino children grow up with only one parent in the home. 67% of African American children grow up in a single parent household.

From what I have observed, a major contributor to our pains and struggles in society are due to the fact that we are full of broken marriages and broken families. We don’t have the stability and the support systems that we used to. Children grow up without present fathers and oddly don’t know how to have respect for authority or what it means to be responsible for a family. Children grow up without mothers and they don’t know how to be nurturing or understanding of other’s needs. They don’t know how to look outside themselves and take care of those around them.

Having a mother and a father is one of the biggest advantages a child can have. By watching their parents they learn what marriage really is. They learn how to put someone else before themselves. They learn how to rely on someone else and how to be there for someone else. Having siblings teaches children how to be respectful to the people around them. They learn how to interact with their peers and that they can have a positive or negative influence on the lives of those around them. They learn how to love others unconditionally.

I’m not naïve enough to think that these issues can be solved quickly or that because I know these thing are important, they can be easily fixed. In most cases, it is what it is. You have the family you have and there isn’t a whole lot you can do to fix what has already been broken.

My suggestion is this: Let’s start where we are. Let’s be kind to the ones we do have. Let’s be grateful for the ones we do have, and let them know it. Let’s forgive each other for where we are lacking and move forward by trying to be a little better. Teach your children to love each other. Teach your children how to love and be kind by loving them and being kind to them.

We can’t fix everything, but we can work on our own homes and we can work on our own families. We can bring peace there, and in turn bring a little more peace to our world that is in desperate need of it.