"If I say run you've got 10 seconds to make it to safety" said the tour guide to my friend this past December while she was touring the Gaza Strip.
Could you imagine growing up in a warzone!
So many kids all over the world are not blessed like mine to grow up in peace.
That said, keeping that atmosphere of peace in my home is no easy task and it really is a battle. There are so many things in our culture that want to introduce fear or chaos into the lives of my children. It's my job as their parent to be their tour guide in a world they are brand new too.
The concept that some kids struggle for food is so hard for my 4 year old to understand from her privileged and protected upbringing it's a foreign world to her. The idea that her friend was jealous of he and took her toys as a response to that feeling may be hard for her to understand. But it's a fact of the world we live in.
So how do we protect the peace of our home while also teaching our children about the world we live in and the injustices therein without instilling fear in them?
I like to think as a parent I'm a tour guide showing my children a country foreign to them bringing them out into the fullness of the world with guidance like how to take 10 seconds to run out of harms way.
We have been given the privilege of cultivating a loving peaceful atmosphere our kids call home. A place of refuge they can run back to when the harshness of the world confronts them. But we have also been given one of the greatest jobs with one of the most lasting impacts one can ever make.
Guiding our kids through the intricacies of emotions and differing viewpoints they are confronted with as they venture out into the foreign culture that is the world beyond the four walls of our homes. Learning to understand the world outside can be different and beautiful but also knowing there will be shots fired at their peaceful bubble as they venture out with us, their tour guides, who have the ability to show them how to duck and cover with wisdom, love, and understanding when they discover people don't see the world the same way they do.
Welcome tour guides to the job of parenting!
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