I love the United States and all of its people: truly. I offer this critique out of concern and care. Sometimes, we can be arrogant. Sometimes, in spite of our wealth and ready access to ease in the context of the situations of our fellow humans around the earth, we complain and gripe and fight.
We just finished the Christmas season. My kids are the best. They really are grateful, happy, selfless children most of the time, but when they aren't, it breaks my heart. I have seen war. I have personally known poverty. My children haven't experienced either.
When I hear and see them cry over a toy or fight for whose turn it is to sit where or play with what, it cuts my soul. I just want to place my hand over their mouths and silence their foolishness: to give them a brief moment of reflection and a chance to catch their wits, to refocus, and to choose a better, more grateful and selfless path.
Sometimes, it's so bad I also have to separate them. In their folly, they need a break. They need to long for the value and companionship of others. It's a necessary opportunity for their selfish desires to be overcome by the futility of loneliness and to ultimately drive them again toward selflessness.
2020 may be the year God himself covered our mouths and put us in time out. Wear your mask. Maintain your distance. I needed the break. I needed to humble my heart. Maybe you did too.
