Each time I hear the stories, or read about people who turned out bad or by our society's standard, a disappointment to the society, I do not instantly judge or condemn them. I try to peruse their stories, their past experiences, or whatever I feel might have contributed to the form their lives have taken.
I'm refering to the reprobates around us, people that we can never really be proud of like the prostitutes, drug dealers, criminals; armed robbers, rapists, paedophiles and assassins, then also the mentally insane and beggers on the streets, etc
Actually, many of these people are in their present state due to their own will, wrong choices, bad decisions and mistakes. But really many also never planned to end up the way they did . They are there because of someone else's decisions and mistakes or some terrible past experiences beyond their control. They are victims of circumstances.
I believe that every child is born with something special, a gift, talent or something he/she can naturally do better than others without much stress. Some kids just need the right opportunity as well as the resources to cultivate their talents.
Every child has a dream, a dream to become something or to be somewhere. The type and nature of the dream, as well as the level and extent of the dream greatly depends on the child's environment as well as his exposure to the world.
For instance, a child being raised in a ranch may begin to dream of owning a large herd of cattles or stable of horses when he's grown. One who is being bred in a church may wish to become a clergy or priest someday. A child always around the TV or around artistes may begin to dream of being a movie star. Quite unfortunately, time and opportunity play a vital role in shaping a child's destiny.
Many brilliant and endowed kids have ended up in the streets as pilferers, pick pockets and junkies either because they couldn't get good education or didn't have the support and guidance needed to help them actualise their dreams.
Think about the girl child left under the care of ruthless foster parents, male relatives or family friend who sexually abuses or molests her, turning her into a sex tool without even giving her proper education.
Or that little girl who is sent to hawk/peddle items around dangerous streets to make ends meet (as is common in Africa). She ends up being raped, getting pregnant and aborting it, or keeping it and being thrown out into the streets. Finally, the only available option left to her is prostitution. Did she not once have a dream like i did?
She was made to become what she is by someone whom she trusted with her life and future. Even her own parents who may have abondoned her to the care of people who didn't care.
Some boys turn out as criminals because they were born out of wedlock, abandoned by the father who probably denied them at conception and then a mother who did not want to commit herself to motherhood. They abandon these kids without proper arrangements for their care/upkeep and thus their future. live in a selfish world!
I've read stories of rapists and paedophiles who became mentally deranged because they were equally abused and maltreated as kids.Thers's a story of a serial killer who murdered women because his own mother left him as an infant.
Some of us might remember the shocking case of the austrian man Joseph Fritzle convicted of imprisoning and raping his own daughter for 24 years beneath his home and fathering seven children with her. He claimed to have been unloved, phisically maltreated and emotionally abused by his mother as a boy.
There's absolutely no justification for such horrible acts anyway, but I believe that if people could learn to take responsibility for their actions and also take care of the people, lives and destinies placed under their care, there'll be less evil in the world.
I examined some terrible cases of high school shootings in America like the Columbine high school massacre of 1999, Red Lake high school Massacre (2005) and Virginia Tech Massacre (2007). The kids who carried out these shootings were depressed or emotionally troubled kids from probably unstable homes, most commit suicide after the shootings.
Some mentally deranged people on the streets are there because of someone. Some beggers are on the streets because they were thrown out or abandoned by someone who was sopposed to care, and some were duped in the past and thrown into penury. Its a wicked world.
If God commits a life(s) into our hands, we should endeavour to do whatever we can (no matter how little) to contribute to that person's future. you never can tell what that person might turn out to be tomorrow. Even if you cant help, don't contribute to ruining people's lives by what you say or do to them.
About children,Jesus said ''if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large milestone hung around his neck and to be drawned in the depths of the sea'' (Mathew 18: 6)Remember, on the judgement day when Jesus would commend his sheeps for giving him something to eat and drink when he was hungry and thirsty and shelter when he was a stranger (Mathew 25: 34-40) He would be refering to the things we did to the people on earth.
May God give us all a loving human heart.
by Chioma Morah
Wow! Lovely
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