One of the main quandaries I find myself in as a
parent, is teaching my girls how to be grateful, thankful, and to not take the privileges of their lives for granted. I
was raised in an immigrant family. Because my family did not have the
disposable income to put us into extracurricular activities (i.e. sports,
playing an instrument, the variety of activities that is available to my
children today), I learned to do without.
After school my days were spent watching TV and running around in my
neighborhood and during summer vacation I spent time doing chores around the
house and summer jobs picking berries and working in the daffodil & tulip bulb
fields.
My parents worked tirelessly so that their
children could have a "better" life here in the US and they succeeded. So thus my girls have a “better” life that
includes a lot of privileges that I was not afforded. And so I wrestle with how to teach
my girls the value of a hard earned dollar, the sacrifices of time and resources made
on their behalf, and teaching them gratitude for it when their daily life is very different than mine. I know the appreciation for these values come with time and sense of maturity and awareness. But I also know that the sheer fact of my life circumstances of having to do without taught me valuable lessons of not taking my privileges for granted, delaying gratification, a sense of accomplishment and deep satisfaction of working hard and reaching a goal, how to be satisfied with less and an awareness and empathy towards who did without.
How do I teach these lessons to my
girls when much of their “world” and others in it are surrounded by the same privileges
and they are not constantly surrounded by people who have deep needs? I realize the irony in having the privilege
and raising funds even to go on trips like this one. Yet drawing back on my own experience of
being raised an in immigrant family & my own 2 years living in Rostov,
Russia in the 90s, there’s something pretty profound about being among
something wholly & holy different that guides to see our own worldview in
such a different way then before.
There a couple of lessons that I hope we learn together as a family in our preparation time and as we go to the Dominican Republic:
- A sense of deep gratitude & the sense of responsibility that the privileges of abundance, wealth, resources, and opportunities affords us to make the world a better place for others, too.
- I hope that we as a family would learn to think more globally and act locally. I know this is so cliche but this is part of the purpose of who we are called to as believers.
- We would grow in our love for people and love for God and His purposes.
