From the Inside Out

Today is Wednesday November 21st approximately 9:35pm I just finished watching another newscast about a teen being killed by another teen.  These days the violence isn’t limited by race, age, or geographic area (neighborhood). As I watched this newscast, my heart went out to the victim’s family because their child did not have to die in a senseless act of violence (shooting). This could have been prevented years ago. At the end of the newscast, they said a meeting would be held at the neighborhood high school to discuss how to make the neighborhood safe. This baffles me, because I can’t figure out for the life of me how we can take on the challenge of making a neighborhood safe when some of us can’t even manage our own homes.

 I’ll let you in on a little secret: If your home isn’t safe, the neighborhood will never be safe.  When this meeting took place I wonder who came?  Parents, kids, police officers, officials, the media, and people who just wanted to be heard. Believe me I applaud your efforts, but I think if we really want to solve the problem of youth violence we must  stop pointing fingers,   be slow to speak and quick to listen,  let down our personal walls so we can see ourselves clearly.  I dare you to take a deep inward look and really ask yourself, ”Am I a positive influence on my own child? Am I the person my son or daughter calls a role model, or do they look to some thug with a gift or a talent and a million dollar contract who doesn’t deserve their admiration?” WHO IS YOUR CHILD’S ROLE MODEL????

How can we talk about making our neighborhoods safe and our own homes aren’t safe?  In too many families, Mommy and Daddy pay the bills, but the kids run the house!  They make the decisions about whether or not they’ll eat meals with the family and when they’ll come home at night...if they come home at all. It’s gotten to the point where parents have to knock on the child’s door in your own house to see if they’ll allow you to speak with them or enter their room.  They make life or death decisions depending upon if they feel disrespected or not both inside and outside the home.

When we want to change the neighborhood, we tend to look at someone or something else instead of looking in the mirror. When will we realize that an external situation will only change if we make the internal changes first.  If you cut your skin with a knife, that cut must begin healing through a process that takes place deep on the inside.  When a body builder firms up his muscles, we know he’s a body builder because we see the external difference produced by internal changes.  If you’re a Christian the only way your external daily walk can change is by renewing your internal thoughts, which then manifest themselves through your external actions.

  Some of us will join a neighborhood meeting and know in our hearts that we left the neighborhood menace at home...the very person who can truly give us the insight on what needs to be done. We leave them at home or out running the street on purpose, fearing if we take them to the meeting they might say  Mommy and Daddy are the root cause to their actions. “Mommy and Daddy don’t act this concerned about me at home. They’re to busy with their careers, churches, and clubs to pay attention to me. ”Mommy and Daddy are to busy beating me for their mistakes instead of praising me for my progress.”