Awareness

I found two definitions for this word.

The first says, “having  knowledge;  conscious;  cognizant” and the other says, “informed; alert; knowledgeable; sophisticated.”

I bring this up because a friend of mine posted a link to a blog whose writer had a problem with the current Facebook meme. You can read the post here. If you’re not sure what that is, now until Dec. 6, Facebook users have been asked to change their profile picture (avatar) to a favorite childhood cartoon character to raise awareness of child abuse. I changed mine to Mulan by the way.

The writer of this blog says that changing one’s avatar does nothing to prevent child abuse and since their was no call to action along with this awareness campaign it was basically futile.

I posted the following comment:

And you never know for whom this little project really impacted. Maybe someone is moved to action. Maybe someone said a prayer. Maybe someone came to terms with their own abuse and started their own healing process. We don’t know.

There’s a …story out there about thousands of fish on the beach and some kid throwing them back in the ocean one by one. An older gentlemen tells the kid he can’t possibly make a difference because the number of fish were too great. He kept throwing fish back in the water and said well it just made a difference to that one.

Sometimes you have to make a difference one at a time and seemingly insignificant projects like this will inspire, encourage someone to save one.

We’re having this discussion and it only helps the cause.

Apostle Theresa Harvard Johnson shared a link about an upcoming film on sexual exploitation of children.

The Candy Shop Trailer from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

This video not only made me aware but it also made me sick to my stomach and lead me to pray children who are currently living in this hell.

To find out how you can do more, log on to the following sites and not only be aware about child abuse, but have discussions about it, certainly pray against it, learn to recognize the signs and fight for tougher legislation against those who commit these horrific crimes. So I’m thankful for the Facebook meme on child abuse and the post against it because the issue is being discussed.

Child abuse sites:

• Child Help
• Ten Ways to help Prevent Child Abuse
• Prevent Child Abuse America
• Made by Survivors (Site created by survivors of sex trafficking)
• Human Trafficking of Children in the United States

So we are all aware of child abuse, have changed our avatars in memory of these children and now here’s the  call to action.

Visit one of the sites above and see how else you can make a difference.

Thanks.