Beautiful Innocence III

I can’t help myself, and I really don’t want to, if it means that I should stop thinking about the kids, the parents, the school faculty, the first responders, the families, and the community surrounding the tragedy in Newtown, CT. Newtown. Hmmm, maybe we all need a new town, as in a new outlook on our world around us.

We live in our little cocoons, sheltered from the things we don’t allow in. Conveniences abound and waiting is only a choice, not a requirement. We communicate as needed, if that much, and life leads us along.

New town. New outlook.

Love. Live. Stand. Share.

Welcome. Embrace. Listen. Learn.

Pray. Bow. Receive. Visit.

Read. Memorize. Recite. Lead.

Help. Give. Teach. Understand. Ask.

Repeat day after day, week after week, and so on. Then let’s see where we are. Where did we lose our way? Don’t bother trying to find out when, where, or even who is to blame, but rather, make the change yourself. Live the In God We Trust, Greatest Nation in the World, Indivisible Under God world that we all clamor for when tragedy strikes. Be the world we all want.

So, I posted this picture of my twins, Theodore and Jacqueline, because I see beautiful innocence. And to me, another’s innocence isn’t ours to take, alter, or render negligible. We have enough of an effect on others without even trying to, so I think, I, we, should change the way we think and move forward. We want a beautiful world yet we don’t always do something about it. We have the power to do so, just as generations before us did.

Beautiful: handsome – lovely – pretty – fine – fair – nice

Innocence: purity – naivety – simplicity – guiltlessness

Beautiful innocence. I can’t get too far past these words for the last few days. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Innocence, like a creature on the endangered list, once it’s gone it’s gone. We come together to protect animals, our atmosphere, historical places, and environmental necessities. Rightfully so. I mean, God created animals, the earth, and human beings. To me that means we are no more deserving of this place than the creatures, and this place itself. Yet, we come together to demand things, picket those opposed, start movements, start companies, and raise funds for these things. So I ask the following question.

Who is taking a stand to protect the innocence? We protect all kinds of things. The highway clover leaf encircles a protected wetland. Good. But who is teaching the parents, or holding us accountable to be less careless in protecting our future’s innocence? I am guilty too. We smoke. We curse. We drink. We gossip. We share things inappropriately. We give access where access has not been earned, nor prepared for. We exclude God. We move fast because we can, leaving the why’s and the how’s for someone else completely unqualified to teach our kids. We wonder why the world has gone to hell in a hand basket, but we don’t instill God’s truths and His Book in nearly anything we do. And when it all goes wrong we question God in every way we deem convenient.

We are equal. We are not above one another. We can work together. We can pray together. We can worship together. We can teach, live, and lead by example together. God shared the following from the Book of Matthew: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48 KJV)

We have the know how. We have the instructions. We even have historical lessons, maybe even within our own families. We have the reasons, or the incentive. We have free will. But will we protect the innocence by improving the people and  places where innocence is found?

Beautiful Innocence

Beautiful Innocence II