What I'll Tell My Children

I'm a bit of a news junkie. I watch it everyday.  Friday morning, of course, was different.  After a half an hour of coverage of the tragedy in Colorado, I turned it off.  There was nothing new to report and I was tired of them repeating the terrible details.
Since then, one of the popular 'news' features has been 'What to Tell Your Children'.  Various psychologists have weighed in on how we should help our young ones deal with this.  I didn't listen to them.  I know exactly what I'll tell my kids.

We all have been given a gift in this life. It's called free agency.  We each have the ability to choose every day. We choose what we think, what we say and what we do.  These choices make us who we are.

There are people who choose darkness.  When given the options, they follow evil.  Their choices are to cause harm to others.  They are selfish, thinking only about their own desires and having no concern for the pain they cause.  This is a hard part of life.

But, while we are free to choose evil, we are also free to choose good.  We are free to look for the light and seek after it.  We are free to follow our faith.

So, while it is scary to live in this world because of those who choose badly, we can still have joy-- if we choose to.  We do not need to cower inside, afraid of what is out there.  This will only serve to shrink us down.  There is no happiness in fear.

Our choice must be one of faith.  Faith in the inherent goodness in people.  Faith in the knowledge that this life is not the end.  Faith in knowing that trials are hard, but we can do hard things.  And, when we do hard things, we grow.

We choose to have faith in a loving Father in Heaven.  One who knew that all of His children would not choose wisely, but that we needed to choose anyway.  A Father who mourns with His children when they are in pain, but allows that pain because it is part of life. We have faith that our Father loves us so much that He lets us grow and learn so that we can become all that He sees in us.

I will tell my children that we choose faith over fear.  We choose to do good, to be good.  Life will rage like a storm around us, but because we have faith, we can weather the wind and rain.  We will cling to one another, building on our love and our belief.  We will face the future and all its uncertainty with the joy and peace that come from a knowledge that there is sunshine on the horizon.