Promote the Good

I've had our family pictures back for almost a week, but my heart has felt heavy with the tragedies happening locally and all around our country.  It seemed disrespectful to casually disregard all that has been happening by posting pictures, almost as if to say, "Never mind that people are losing their lives in acts of horrific violence, look at my cute family instead!"

With the events of Sandyhook in December, the bombing in Boston this week, the murder of 2 people here in Mesquite over the weekend (in a house I frequently run by), as well as the lockdown on Boston this morning, I have felt an increasing sense of anxiety as to the state of our nation and our world.

Sometimes, I admit, I hide my head under a pillow when I hear these stories.  We don't have TV and I refuse to look up the details online.  I can't help but imagine my own daughter or family members in their place and the sympathy I feel on behalf of those living with the loss is too heart breaking to handle.  If I'm not careful, it is easy for me to be caught in a downward vortex of horror, fear and sadness.

Hence, I very much appreciated Mindy Thornly for posting this picture this week.  Wise man, that Mr. Rogers.  This outlook helped me to focus on the positive in a very grim week.  Yes, there is much evil in the world, but there is still so much good.  As Mindy said - "Goodness - Seek it. Be it."  We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.  We need to look for the good and promote it.  I aim to do so by teaching my children right from wrong, by being kind, by loving freely.  How about you?  How will you be the "good" you wish to see?  How will you be a "helper"?