The Power of One Voice
We each have the power to change the world. Where to begin? We begin with ourselves. We begin with a passion. We begin with our story.
Our voices, one at a time make a difference. Speak up today, the world needs passionate people to truly make a difference. Whose voice has changed your worldview? Add to the list we started yesterday. Speak, we are listening!
L
The video below is from the organization CARE. They believe you are powerful too!
L
The video below is from the organization CARE. They believe you are powerful too!
posted by Sparkfly at
7:00 AM
5 Comments:
Great pictures in the video.
I found your blog via Susan's. I'm excited about reading yours now. I'm also in Washington DC like Natalie and having a great time post seminary. It's a great feeling to not be in school (for a while at least).
How I have been looking forward to this connecting point! Sparkfly looks terrific, and its focus is just what I need, to keep the conversation going and thoughts flowing.
One of my new part-time jobs before I return to Mexico has turned out to be tutoring international kids in an ESL classroom, and I have been reminded lately how important stories are to young minds, and to us all. The kids love reading a story. Any story. But especially one that they can identify with, that both draws them in and opens their world.
Each girl and boy, despite their language difficulties, needs to be heard, to be understood. They need to know the way they think and act, and their stories as they develop, are good and special and even amazing, something worth marveling at and making much of.
One of the girls, named Bethanie, is a real troublemaker in the after-school club. She yells out random words, chases the boys, kicks the table, throws paper. She's in third grade and will do anything for attention. During a calm day, however, I caught her reading a book by Max Lucado, called YOU ARE SPECIAL. I asked her about it. She mumbled. I asked, "Did you know you are special?" She shrugged, uncharacteristically subdued. "Well, you are." I repeated, "You ARE special, Bethanie."
It seemed simple, but as I said the words, I could see a hesitant, questioning look in her eyes, an almost-open-but-still-afraid-to-embrace look. Bethanie doesn't know me very well. I don't know if she took the words to heart. I don't know if she often heard those words at home. But acknowledging her and her story as a person created and loved by God reverberated in my own mind with the truths I have been told my whole life, by parents and teachers and friends and mentors.
My Voices List would include these people, like my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Inman and my track coach Diane Weber and my youth minister Lonnie. How formative and influential that kind of affirmation has been and continues to be to me! How we need to hear those words of honesty, of grace, of challenge, of affection, sometimes over and over again! I agree; we NEED to share stories, our own and others.
I am grateful to you.
April
April, keep on telling the children that they are loved, special, and amazing. Most of them have probably not been told that by anyone I feel sure that was all new to Bethanie. God bless you for telling her. Most children do not completely forget things like that, but they need reinforcement of such a new idea to them. The seed has been planted. I hope that it is watered and cared for so that it will bloom and produce more quality seeds. We just never know what will happen after one such moment in a child's life. Keep up the good work!!
Thank you for the reminders to speak up and make a difference. I needed that.
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