Missive Smile

 She's about one and a half year old, bubbling with life and excited about her ability to walk.

She gently raised her head to looked at me and smiled. Yes, she did it again but this time playfully. It was a lovely smile clothed with innocence and many questions.
It was a cheerful and promising smile, pregnant with many issues.
I involuntarily returned her smile with a broader encouraging one. 

I was momentarily excited by that act, but that wordless encounter with the girl left me wondering. Yes, it did.

There's this feeling that got me thinking after our brief encounter.
In this missive smile, I thought to myself what are we supposed to do in order not to fail these young ones.

With this passive smile, I felt the need to share this piece.

By the way, how are your children; our future leaders?
How are our children; our future hope faring?
How well are we preparing or forming them to face the future?
How holistic is our approach as a nation to give them a firm foundation?

Are we able to give them and their mates the reason to hold on to this assuring smile in our somewhat unfair world?

Are we able to help protect them from the harshness we are exposing them to?
Are we by any act giving them hope for the future by the way we go about things?
Are we giving them the necessary discipline and the needed sense of responsibility to be confident or are we over pampering them?
Are we showing them the appropriate ways of linking up with God and helping find a critical answer to their pestering question?

What examples are we even offering them through our actions and reactions?
What subtle things are we exposing them to that would enhance these cheerful looks on their faces?
What ideas and practices are we teaching our young ones?

Have we for instance spared a thought on what our children learn from the media?
Have we guessed the effects some of these programmes have on them?
Have we consciously considered teaching them the act of true service and the need to conserve our environment?

Can we proudly admit we are making adequate time to prepare our children for the future?
Can we say we are overindulging them in our biases, stereotypes or subtle prejudices?
Can we say we are inculcating the right values that would help them to properly manage their own affairs?
Can we collectively commend our parents' parents for giving us the good foundation that helped us to reach where we are today?

There's no doubt these young ones are promising and curious.
In fact, each one of these young ones is beautiful, they are unique individuals who are gifts to us.
As we tout them to our future leaders and indeed they are capable, we have every right to prepare them for this task.

Maybe we need to come to their level, make enough time for them, befriend them, listen to them in order to properly prepare them for the future.

Maybe we can collectively make a conscious move to care for these young ones today.

May God help us live this duty.
Greetings
©KYB ✍26/07/19