We Need to Talk About......

Last week, I wrote a blog entitled, Reality Isn't Always Pretty. A review of this year confirms that crazy can look ordinary on any given day. This has been a heart-wrenching week for many in Oregon and Connecticut. There are no words that can comfort a grieving parent or child at a time like this. My heart aches for every family who has been devastated by loss. I hugged my children extra tight and extra times this week. I have paused often to wonder if I can protect the children under my supervision on a daily basis and whether or not my own children will be protected in the midst of a crisis. Thankfully, I know God is in control and He doesn't want me to live in fear. His plan was set and He knows every outcome. My job is to trust and believe. So is yours. 

We need to step up our prayer lives. We should be praying for our children constantly. We should be praying for everything. God's Word says, "Pray without ceasing." (1 Thess. 5:17) Prayer changes things and prayer changes hearts. This week alone has begun a dialogue that I hope will continue and eventually yield results. There are calls for better gun control in the US and a review of the Constitutional Amendment that allows us to bear arms. As I listened to countless news reports, the one fact that stuck in my mind was that there are 300 million gun in the US. The only country that supersedes us is Yemen. That made me cringe. We have a lot of rights in the US but for some reason, misuse of weapons bothers me most. Most likely because there are so many innocent victims. We really do need to look at changing that because weapons in the wrong hands does irreparable harm to not just the victims but in many cases, the whole community.

Frank discussions about mental health is also necessary. People of all ages are suffering and in a lot of cases have nowhere to go to resolve those issues. Hurting people hurt people. There is no consistent picture of a mental health patient and there are countless folks out here appearing normal and functioning normal. Unfortunately, we never know what might set them off. It sickens me to know there are Veteran's out here suffering and the resources are not in place to get them integrated back into society. As a former Government employee, I know how frustrating dealing with bureaucracy can be. If you couple that with a fragile individual on their worst day, you are developing a recipe for disaster. You would think that as a country, we would be savvy enough to at least get serious about taking care of sick people. 

Christmas will not ever be the same for the families in CT. Their grieving process hasn't even begun. Not only do they have children and adults to lay to rest but they have children and adults who survived but will be traumatized by the tragic events that took place. I certainly hope that the pat solution isn't going to be providing grief counselors for a week. It takes more than a week to process sometimes. Let's pray that as we watch communities such as Newtown begin to deal with all that has happened this week, that the dialogue continues not only for better gun control but also mental health issues.

My prayer is that we as a country take both things seriously. My prayer is also that we not forget the victims. The media always tends to turn the focus on the perpetrator and give them far too much attention. May God bless each of you reading this and remember, if you aren't part of the solution, you might be part of the problem.

In Diva Sadness,

Pam