{"id":9582,"date":"2016-08-09T06:15:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T06:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wonderoak.com\/?p=9582"},"modified":"2018-02-19T21:50:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T21:50:33","slug":"dear-kids-the-world-is-still-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/2016\/08\/09\/dear-kids-the-world-is-still-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Kids, The world is still beautiful."},"content":{"rendered":"

To My Kids,<\/p>\n

Some people will say that the world is\u00a0a scary, scary place. Some people will say that there’s no\u00a0hope and that the future is dark and bleak.<\/p>\n

It is scary sometimes, but my dear ones, always remember, there are things that are awful, and terrible, and sad, but there is also always HOPE and there is always GOOD. \u00a0You have the tools already printed in your heart.\u00a0You have love, mercy, compassion, generosity, and kindness. You have ambition and courage, and a radical sense of justice…and that is exactly what is needed.<\/p>\n

You are not helpless to bring\u00a0goodness and light to the world; you are well equipped.<\/p>\n

Fear will tell you that it isn’t enough, and that there is nothing that can be done. It will say that you are helpless and a victim to fate. It isn’t true, my loves. The world is your canvas. Make your mark on it with creativity, compassion, and purpose…and I promise that you (and it) will never be the same.<\/p>\n

The world is still very, very beautiful\u00a0because it is full of\u00a0people, people who\u00a0have\u00a0greatness inside of them. We must always be believers in people.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No act of kindness is too small to matter. Every single time you make the decision to love instead of hate, to embrace instead of judge…it matters. Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently. When I overheard you lose your temper with your sister, and tell her to “Move over!” and then quickly apologize saying, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.” That mattered. When you took ten dollars from your savings and left it in the tip jar for a barista, that mattered. It mattered very, very much.<\/p>\n

When you share your toys and invite someone who is left out to play…it always matters.<\/p>\n

Remember: love is always more powerful than evil.<\/p>\n

You aren’t better than anybody; no matter their choices, their ethnicity, their grades or their looks. Nobody. The way we love God is to love people. All of the people. Not in a huge overwhelming way – but in the way of loving those in front of us\u00a0– at the coffee shops\u00a0or at school. The way of being kind and generous. The way of looking at the world with eyes wide open, and giving to causes that make a dent in global\u00a0needs like hunger and clean water.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you might\u00a0feel like floating through life, and giving up on caring. I get that, I feel like that too sometimes- it’s hard to keep caring. The thing is though, without caring and giving, and offering your strength – you\u00a0will be bored. You need<\/strong> to have purpose that is\u00a0bigger than just yourself…<\/p>\n

…and you do.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of things happening right now that are violent and hateful. Our hearts are sick and grieved, and it is good to cry. Sometimes we can’t fix it, and there is nothing to say that will make those in Orlando, or Parkland, or Dallas, or France, or Sandy Hook’s hurt feel better, but what we can do is look at ourselves and ask:<\/p>\n

Who am I<\/strong> going to be?<\/p>\n

What am I<\/strong> going to do to make the world a better place?<\/p>\n

How am I<\/strong> going to be a person that calls out the good and the strength inside of others?<\/p>\n

Who you are matters. What you invest into this world matters. When I look into your eyes, I see all that is good. I see a brightness and an innocence. I see passion and fire and someone who will not easily be pushed down or quieted. I see someone who loves well, and who cares about others’ needs.<\/p>\n

I am proud of you, and I think that what you have is just what is needed to call this world a very beautiful and wonderful place.<\/p>\n

So here’s what we are going to do this week:<\/p>\n

We are going to bake pies and take them to houses on our street (your choice).<\/p>\n

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We are going to paint beautiful\u00a0art pieces and send them to a\u00a0loved one who is suffering from a tragic loss.<\/p>\n

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We are going to look for an act of kindness we can do for someone we don’t know, and then talk about it in the evening around the dinner table.<\/p>\n

Because, my loves, we matter and what we do matters.<\/p>\n

Don’t you ever believe for one precious second that this world is more scary than it is still\u00a0good. I know this because of the gold you have inside you.<\/p>\n

We matter.<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Mama<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

For more reading like this,\u00a0follow me here at Wonderoak, on Facebook<\/a> and Wonderoakblog on Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To My Kids, Some people will say that the world is\u00a0a scary, scary place. Some people will say that there’s no\u00a0hope and that the future is dark and bleak. It is scary sometimes, but my dear ones, always remember, there are things that are awful, and terrible, and sad, but there is also always HOPE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3355,985083,147028],"tags":[79294,55762,15967,217161846,5309,1081693,538,50524178],"class_list":["post-9582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-stories","category-mom-stories","category-orlando","tag-generosity","tag-giving","tag-mom","tag-orlando","tag-parenting","tag-sandy-hook","tag-violence","tag-we-matter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/fullsizerender-188.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6wz1w-2uy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9582"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31215,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9582\/revisions\/31215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonderoak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}