Hope Dealer - The Disenfranchisement

We know the word "disenfranchisement" to mean the following:

"to prevent a person or group of people from having the right to vote".

Today as I used this word deprivation is still at its core but not in the manner relating to the ability to vote. The disenfranchisement that I speaking of today is the loss or deprived right of enjoying childhood.

I believe childhood is where the feeling of hope is birthed. Yet many are robbed of this necessity and in turn grow up to see the world as cold and hopeless. We see it in the runaways, we see it in the juvenile delinquents. Children who at one point were filled with joy, hope and innocence are forced to experience the world in a terrible way due to circumstances beyond their control.

So we find that in an attempt to re-establish hope, characters such as Saint Nick the Jolly and the Easter Bunny become a means to save the day. Our children are then taught to hope for presents, when really they should be hoping for presence. Let me explain, I am suggesting that hope is a state of being more than just a feeling. Thus, creating a habit of desiring material things to create hope is disastrous. We end up with misguided adults partaking in a rat race who at the end of the race discovers the cheese is not all it was hyped up to be. Our children should be nurtured to understand that their presence gives others access to discovering the hope that lies within them.

Recently, I have started to take notice of how hard I am on my little cousins. Now don't get me wrong, I love them to death but sometimes my way of showing it isn't the best. I desire for them to see the world with endless possibilities to pursue their God given callings. I have come to realize that my approach is flawed and as is no surprise, it was what I had learned to be the right way. Tuff love always pays off. But does it? I am forced to reconsider humbly, as I would hate to be the reason for them to feel as if this is the only way to do things. Hope is the sibling to Love and I fear that my "tuff love" may have a drastic effect on their experience of hope.

My point is this, the way we talk to our children has an effect on their understanding of hope. We must ensure that we communicate kinder and talk differently to our children. For a long time I was weary of bringing a child into this world. I dare say hope which was lost now stands renewed. :) A friend of mine shared the picture below, the words rang loud at my core:

The Creative Adult is the Child Who Survived.

I admire and applaud those passionate about helping children in whatever capacity. As adults we owe it to our children to ensure they know what hope is. In my instance my survival indeed spurred on my creativity. However, i'd like to imagine a world where this isn't necessarily the case. I would like to think if we adults make it a priority to nurture hope in our children, we will in turn help to create little beings that will grow to also be exponentially creative.

For a very long time being around children literally made me cry profusely. And for a long time I wasn't sure why. Now I know...

I was crying because some how I had survived the onslaught.. I was crying because the Hope that should have been lost stood renewed.

I was crying because in the smiles of the children I taught at Children Church on Sunday, in the eyes of the children in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, I was crying because in the eyes of the children I grew to love in Jharkhand... I saw a hope my soul knew to be alive.

And in every encounter I was re-writing my portion... no longer was i disenfranchised.... I was now the one designated TO proudly bring and Partake of Hope.