Joyful Heart Foundation. Please Help Us.

About this blog carnival: “The world I want for my children” is an effort to support The Joyful Heart Foundation, which was founded by Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay to help victims of sexual assault mend their minds, bodies and spirits and reclaim their lives.  Today, the foundation is at the forefront of an effort to end a disheartening backlog of tens of thousands of rape kits in labs across the country, a backlog that contributes to a rapist’s 80 percent chance of getting away with his crime.  The backlog and its detrimental effects will be the topic of an SVU episode on September 29^th.
Please help us raise awareness for this important work.  What kind of world do you want for your children? Write your post and link up here.
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The World I Want For My Children 

Sometimes the tears come to my eyes when I see how hard it can be for you to follow the standards your father and I have put before you,  our three boys, the ones we have asked you to live by.

Since you were born, I have been whispering in your ears,  "You were created, because God's world demanded your place in it."

I want you to believe that you were made because this world required your presence in it.

I see how hard this is, to go against the grain of everyone and everything else you see. I see how you work to rise above all that is around you, that we won't let you be part of. I'm not blind, I know the self control it takes to not lash out and do back what sometimes is done to you. But that's not how we live.

Believe me, I am not blind to your efforts, and I see how you remember "who you are, and Whose you are."

I can't change what the world is, and what it has become. I can pray and wish and only tell you, that I wish it were different. That I wish there were no pain, no unfairness, no injustice, no crimes done against each other.  But, we talk about everything with you, and you know that this ugliness exists in the world.

The rule we live by, and the rule we've taught all of you, is,  "in everything, do to others as you would have them do to you."  I know, no easy task. It means feeling that things are not fair, that others don't care how they hurt you or that they hurt you. You may even think that I don't care about what you tell me.

I do care. It hurts me very much. Don't you see the pain in my eyes when I listen to you tell me how hard it is that you know you can't do back what others may do to you? Don't you see? Look closer next time, I hear you. My pain is there, too, behind my silent listening. 

Living the way we do is hard on me, too, as your mother.

Since you were old enough to understand words, the 3 that we've taught you to memorize are, "kindness, kindness, kindness." We would repeat these words over to you, until they came automatically in your conversations.

I tell you this because there is a story about a day at the park, when you were about 3, and we had brought your favorite toy trucks along to play with.  There was a little boy who suddenly showed up out of nowhere and grabbed your yellow and blue shovel and ran off with it. You stood up on your little chubby legs and ran after him shouting, "kineness! kineness! kineness!" My heart felt like a 50 lb weight in my chest at that moment, to see you expecting that little boy to know what you meant by your words.  

Our family believes we are here to make things better for whoever crosses our paths. We have taught you to ask yourselves, "am I a blessing in this person's life." 

You may not think that what we've taught you matters right now, but, my beautiful boys, you have to believe us; it is the ONLY thing that matters in the life we've been given.

Well, go along now. Get on with your days.  Be quieter, humbler, kinder.

Tomorrow, many many more tomorrows from now, you will see the blessings of a life well lived.

We want a world for you, where you will not be ashamed of who you are, and of what you've done.  We want a world for you, where you look back on your life and can see, why this world needed you in it.

*Every Post linking up to Joyful Heart Foundation brings the backlog of kits closer to an end.*