Hello, lovely readers! I'm very excited to share a guest post today with you from my friend Courtney Christenson. As we wrapped up 31 Days of Intentional Community, I was struck with the thought that I wanted to touch on connecting with the community at large, that is, having a global awareness while being intentional in our local communities.
My friend Courtney wrote a sweet book that can be a great tool for teaching our kids about this idea of being mindful of others around the world and how we can make a difference in the lives of others who have less than us. Stay tuned for a chance to win her book later in the week.
I planned this post before I knew about the needs that our neighbors in the Philippines were facing after that dreadful typhoon hit. If you are wondering how you can help, please consider donating through Compassion International where over 84% of your money donated goes directly to children in need (I love how transparent they are about that).
And now without further adieu, here's Courtney...
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One part of intentional community that can be somewhat complicated is the global aspect of our community. While being responsible members of our global community is seemingly getting easier and easier, it is also getting easier to ignore it all as we bury ourselves in our own little bubble of busyness.
Communicating these concepts to our children can be especially challenging...to the point that we either gloss over tough issues in an effort to protect our children or we just choose not to address it at all.
Personally, I believe that educating our children about global issues and giving them age appropriate ways to get involved is one of the first steps towards emulating the love of Jesus for those around the world.
I feel so strongly about our responsibility as parents to raise our children in a globally minded way that I wrote a children’s book, A Heart that Cares as a tool for starting this process. It is the perfect way to generate a heart-changing conversation with your kids about compassion while giving them a tangible way to help others in our global community.
A Heart that Cares focuses on child sponsorship which is a great way to help those in need. If you haven’t seen Nicole’s previous posts on child sponsorship, here’s a quick run-down. Child sponsorship works within local communities, providing resources children need to stay healthy, get an education to hopefully break the cycle of poverty and also develop their spiritual life.
Child sponsorship is also a great way to get your kids involved in their global community in a personal way. Instead of talking to your kids about "those people" out "there", they can build a real relationship with a real person...as in REAL community on a global scale.
For more information and resources on starting these conversations with your children, practical ways you and your family can make a difference or to get a copy of A Heart that Cares for the kids in your life, visit Growing Global Kids.
About Courtney:
Wife to the perfect man for me. Mother of 2 little girls. Believer, advocate, domestic disaster, photographer, traveler, adventurer, beach lover and slightly hippie. I believe that I can change the world…I just never imagined it would look like this.
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What other ways can you think of being engaged the global community intentionally? How can we teach our kids to do this as well?