Take this past couple of months as an example. I've spent countless hours with an amazing group of young people who have an unexpected compassion for others, considering peers their age rarely think of anyone except 'self '.
I credit this compassionate group to the lives lived thus far by the individuals within. Each one brought an average of 11 years of wisdom gained through their own trials, heartaches, successes, and choices of lifestyles to the table: that table being a long white plasticone we gathered around most days of the week during lunch and my afternoon conference.
Story after story, joke after joke, and rumor after rumor they grew more comfortable in sharing their lives with each other and myself. As the days went by, that comfort became a collective trust; a trust that led them to know each other on a more personal level; a level that was not shared outside the perimeter of the table. It is within that perimeter I am guilty of not listening...
I am guilty of hearing and seeing; of a combination of sympathy and empathy that twisted my heart into pools of tears; of distress and prayer and bonding of souls that will endure 'til the end of it's allotted time.
Those of you who give your personal time to teach, mentor, advise, comfort and 'love' the young people of our society know exactly what I've been experiencing. This is certainly not the first group of kiddos I've 'loved' in my 49 years on earth, and I pray it won't be the last; but this is the first group who overcame 'self' in order to reach out to each other. In turn, they committed to reaching beyond the perimeters of 'the table'.
Search GLO DI 2012 on YouTube to witness for yourself God's children reaching out to save their own........
I pray you seize every opportunity in your lifetime to work with the youth of our world and that you be found 'Guilty as Charged', while you experience a 'Love' that will change your life forever.
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