As the World Gives

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

~ John 14:27

   I drive home and ponder the above words. It's been a week of pondering words - those others have said to us, to me, and words I've said to others. Words shape and define us. We can spend our whole lives trying to overcome words, because ultimately actions follow words and words follow actions and words become us, and we become words. Words: it all started with the Word, and that word: it was good.

  I do not give to you as the world gives.

   And I wonder about the words my children are ingesting in this world. What are they are hearing and what they are reading? More than ever, we are engaged in the words they ingest because one day they will become these words and carry words into the world.

   We have been caught up in the much acclaimed story, Wonder, over the past few weeks. We have listened by audio to the gripping story of a boy with a deformed face. The story has been incredibly moving, bringing tears to my eyes, and yet there are parts of this book I loathe.

   Is it normal for today's kids to play Dungeons and Dragons, and have Halo, a first person shooter game, voted best killer app, on their computers? 

   God help us. God help us that we normalize violence for our kids in our books and in our homes. They come home asking for it, and we cave. God help us.

   Dear R.J. Palacio,

   WHY DO YOU SUBTLY NORMALIZE VIOLENCE IN A BOOK ABOUT OVERCOMING BULLYING AND VIOLENCE! 

   EVERY WORD is PIVOTAL. Words INFLUENCE us. We are them. They are us. What we fill our minds with, is who we are. Wake up!

   THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES. 

   I listened to OPB this morning and the polls about gun violence, and the majority of people believe our mass shootings come from mental illness.

   WHERE EXACTLY IS THAT MENTAL ILLNESS COMING FROM? 

   COULD WE START BY ADDRESSING OUR VIDEO GAMES, and the words we let our kids read that normalize this violence? Very few of these mass shooters are older people. They are young people raised in a culture of violent gaming. But we don't/won't talk about that!

   We bring violence into our homes. Why do we shake our heads and Wonder at the outcome? Our own Halo's are truly gracing our heads. 

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Here is a real Wonder story happening in Oregon very near you. 

This story is all about what God gives. 

All About Vladik

   This is what the world gives...

   The school librarian recently chided my middle schooler for reading The Count of Monte Cristo (full edition, 1,000 pages long), encouraging her to read more age appropriate materials. I wasn't there, I didn't hear, but when she brings home dangerous fluff (there is such a thing) and puts down the Count at 500 pages into her story because of some librarian's words, you can bet there will be words spoken and words pondered. Thank you librarian for causing us to stop and think, yet again, about what we read and put in our minds. My mama/teacher feathers may have been ruffled for a moment, but you did us a service, and we were reminded...

I do not give to you as the world gives.

   As so as I drive home, I ponder His words and His reminder to me, and I ponder one more story about a girl, but her story is my story, and your story too. It's a story about a girl that's beginning a trek. She's trekking to find a homeland.

   My prayer for you dear girl, is that you know: He does not give to you as the world gives. As you seek answers, therapies, love, hope, and family, may you be led to resources that speak truth, freedom, light, love, and joy. May you find Him. Because every therapy we seek for our broken souls, apart from Him, will never fully heal us. Apart from the One Great Soul, we will always be looking for the wholeness, that deep down, we know exists, and it does exist, dear girl. It does exist. There is a giver of peace.

And He does not give to you as the world gives.