This morning in Amy’s class they had an photo assignment where they had to capture a word in a picture. One of the words that was given was power. Gary Haugen, founder of IJM describes injustice as “The abuse of power – taking from others what God intended for them.”
I was thinking about this as I was playing with Abby, our 18 month old. She is so small and weak that anyone could abuse the power they have over her. This happens every day as children are forced to work as slaves for those who abuse power over them. Unicef estimates that approx. 218 million children aged 5-17 are engaged in child labour, excluding child domestic labour. This is an abuse of power. This is what made me stop walking in front of Abby today as we were going to the park. My agenda was to get to the park, it was not about the journey of getting there. I found myself frustrated that she was walking so slow and just playing with rocks, and then I remembered about power.
I could have walked back to her and picked her up so that we could get to the park faster, but I felt that I should just go to her and throw with rocks with her. I thought about her in the future looking back at her relationship with her daddy. I want to be remembered and looked at as someone who is interested in the interests of others, not my own. I pray that people who abuse their power over children, both domestically and in work labor situations would see and understand that they are taking peoples life from them. I pray that organizations like IJM and Unicef would be used to shut down this unjust practice.
-amen-
Wow thank you for that. I think we all would do good to consider how we might be abusing our power or neglecting the what’s best for others in pursuit of our own agendas. Thanks.
Really appreciated this one, Phil. Thanks for thinking.-Mel
Its always great reading your post Phil….Once again you did it. I hope that you are having a relaxing time with your family, and a time to be the caretaker while Amy is off doing the school.