The world, both online and off, can be a very unkind and unpleasant place. Even as adults we find ourselves ill equipped to deal with both the awfulness and unnecessary callousness of it all. Unfortunately, if we’ve gotten this far, past childhood, through adolescence and we still have little compassion, then it’s probably fair to say we missed out on the fundamentals when we were younger.
Many of our current politicians are a shining example of what it looks like to lack compassion. It would appear that many of them aren’t aware what it means to ‘not judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes’. Probably because most have come from very white, very privileged backgrounds and have never had to venture outside their own lives for more than a well documented media opportunity. They don’t know what it is to worry about how they will feed their family next week or pay the rent. Or contemplate exactly what they would be capable of doing if their own children were facing probable death if they remained in a violent, war-torn country.
Babies however, aren’t born knowing the difference. They aren’t born racist or homophobic or elitist. They are however, born hungry. At first, hungry for sustenance but as they grow, they are simply hungry for love, encouragement and information.
The definition of compassion is “a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” Compassion isn’t automatically inbuilt in all of us but it can be taught and understood. We, as parents, have a duty to teach our children that we are all born equal and not one of us are more worthy than the other. And we should always do whatever we can do, when possible, to help our fellow man.
Top Comments
We have a very dark skinned Nigerian refugee at our church. Gee he is wonderful. My three year old coloured his hands in brown just so he could go and show him at the end of the service and say 'look, now i'm just like you'. The man laughed and thought it was the cutest thing ever, gave my son a hi 5 and carried on with his conversations.
Children do notice that people look different from one another. Its how you react to this that makes a difference. Rather than worry or make a big deal over something that could have been perceived as racist, the grown ups involved just saw it for what it was. My son adores this guy and wants to be just like him.
Took me ages to clean his hands though...
Disappointed that one of the definitions of compassion that you give is to support a redefinition of marriage. Please dont assume that those of us who support the current definition of marriage are not able to display empathy and compassion and be a role model of those values to our children. I will absolutely teach my children to not be racist or homophobic and to express compassion for all no matter what.