You Have the Power

“The basis of world peace is the teaching which runs through almost all the great religions of the world. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Christ, some of the other great Jewish teachers, Buddha, all preached it. Their followers forgot it. What is the trouble between capital and labor, what is the trouble in many of our communities, but rather a universal forgetting that this teaching is one of our first obligations.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt

We are a country and a world with immense power for good. However, when a few bad things happen, the good doesn’t feel nearly good enough.

That’s where I sit right now. You are likely sitting there, too.

We watch videos of people being killed. We know that racism exists. We see protestors striking back. We are outraged. But we feel helpless.

We feel helpless not just about what’s happening in our country, but about what’s happening in the broader world, too. Wars. Famines. Human trafficking. There is so much bad.

Instead of spending these paragraphs discussing everything that’s wrong with this planet we live on, and what our government and leaders and police and pastors should do about it, I want to just take a few minutes to offer real advice for how we can personally make a difference.

When we moved to our farm in East Tennessee, I grieved the loss of culture and diversity that I had grown up with in South Florida. How could I raise my children well without the support of the community I had been raised in? I loved my childhood church, where nearly every color was represented. My parents did such an amazing job, truly teaching me to love people. This is a top priority for me as I raise my four children. I want to make sure that they learn to love all people.

So while we couldn’t magically create a more diverse area, my husband and I decided to look at what we could do. We could bring people to our farm who looked and believed differently. We could break bread with them and “do life” with them and share our faith and our love. As of writing this, we have hosted over 30 individuals from nearly a dozen countries. Their lifestyle, religion, and color do not matter as we share our home with them. 

My husband and I decided to focus on our own 96 acres. We decided to support adoptions and foster families. We focused on the fatherless. Instead of worrying that the whole world was falling apart, we made a conscious effort to focus on the things we can impact.

What can you impact for good today? No matter where you live or how good or bad it is, you have the power to do these four things:

1. PRAY: Are you praying every day for your community on each level? Pray for your family and your home. Then pray for your town, your county, your state, your country, and your world. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV)
2. TEACH: Are you raising your children to be a part of the good in our world? The most important thing we can do is train up the next generation to be better than the current generation. Talk to them about what’s going on in our world. Share with them how they can be a part of making a difference. Teach them to love. “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
3. LOVE: As Christians, we may not agree with everything other people do, but we need to love everyone. No matter what their lifestyle or choices or sins, we are called to love. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)
4. SERVE: Are you reaching out to the vulnerable in your community? Find ways to love people in your community and your world. Involve your children in your quest. If you don’t have time, give money. If you don’t have money, give time. “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” (Proverbs 19:17)

Would you join me in refusing to throw up our hands in despair and feel that it is impossible to fix the world? We have the power to fix it–one little piece at a time.

Pray. Teach. Love. Serve.

Listen to the Lord. Listen to his calling.

Wendi Kitsteiner is a former city girl now living on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee with her husband and four young children. She is passionate about the causes of infertility, adoption, and keeping it real as a mom. You can follow her at flakymn.blogspot.com or becauseofisaac.org.

Photograph © Jazmin Quaynor, used with permission