Incorrect Comparisons

Today i've written coping skill poetry, chased runaways, physically held children who want to hurt themselves or others, sat on the ground pretending to be a butterfly with a child, fast talked a child into attempting to complete a chore, dealt with some secrets and frustration, given 4839 hugs and danced in the rain. I have been what has been needed in the moment and had to be an emotional chameleon. I love what I do. My children deserve so much more than they are given. They have come through hell and back again and are doing emotional work most adults find difficult in an attempt to break a cycle they didn't choose. All that I do on a daily basis gives me a glimpse into a world many will never enter. So many of you have been so compassionate about the trials of my children and been so prayerful about the next steps some of them will take. But compassion in one area does not excuse a lack of compassion in another simply because my children are citizens and others are not.

As I am on the road to sanctification and becoming who God intends me to be, I am so thankful that God fosters individual relationships with his children and delights in our differences. I can only imagine that in creating the world, God was expressing his artistry. God is about the individual, but I seem to see so many of his children making sweeping, uninformed generalizations on social media. So many people who have been so kind in person, are so cold in posts. Regardless of politics, age, race, gender, net worth or any other factor, I believe that we are called first and foremost to love. Jesus went to the least of these. Jesus got down in the dirt and reached out his hands towards those who were seen as untouchable. Jesus loved in tangible and real ways. We are called to be followers of Christ, but are we looking for him outside our comfort zones and political parties?

All of this to say, my children are not your statistic. When I have spent my days on the ground holding children as they cry or try to hurt themselves or others because of the horror they have lived through, it stuns me to see them used as a Facebook status by people who don't know them to prove a poorly made and incorrect point. What is happening in our world is heartbreaking. What is happening in our nation is heartbreaking. What is happening at our boarders is heartbreaking. It also breaks my heart to see what is happening to families who are not here legally compared to what has happened to my children. These are individual stories and individual people. Do not make a generalization that trivializes the horror of what happens to both my children, and those who are being taken from their families at the boarder. Do not equate people who abuse children, with people who are searching for better for their children. Yes, coming to the country illegally is illegal, but there is a difference between crossing a boarder without approval, and abuse. You are painting desperate people as monsters and trivializing the monsters who haunt the nightmares of my children every night. My children are abused and then put in a system filled with people like me who are trying to help and love them. The children taken from their families at the boarder are held in conditions that would get my organization shut down. It is in no way the same. 

I understand that people have different viewpoints and priorities. I understand that other people have things that are very important to them that I don't place value or worth in. I understand that, because of where we live and the freedoms that we have, these opinions are allowed to be expressed. But it is still heartbreaking to see my kids, who work so hard to become something other than a statistic, become one for someone who wants to make a point that I honestly don't believe Jesus would make. It is heartbreaking to see families ripped apart at the boarder and then see what is accepted as "humane" treatment of children and adults, simply because they are not legal citizens. 

I would urge you to remember your compassion. Be a Christian first and an American second. Have your political views, but make sure that you remember the individuals behind the sweeping generalizations you make. And please, don't use my kids to try to prove your point. They are working really hard every single day.