There is a very thoughtful commentary piece on CNN.com by Grammy-winning Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman. The commentary, titled "Our tragedy and God's love for orphans" tells their story of adopting orphans and the joy's and struggles that led up to it. Recently in May, Maria Sue, one of Steven's young daughters was killed in an accident in the driveway of the family's home.
Steven's commentary piece is one that speaks volumes to me. I have always felt a strong desire to not only have children, but to adopt them. In the movie "Martian Child" there is a quote: "I don't want to bring another kid into this world. But how do you argue against loving one that's already here?". That quote just resonates so deep inside of me.
Steven talks about how if "If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans." Also, according to his commentary, "In America alone, there are half a million children in foster care, and approximately 120,000 of these children are waiting to be adopted." So based off my fuzzy math, if less than one percent of the current adult population (Ages 20 to 64) in the United States (1% of 180,694,619 people) were to adopt one of these approximately 120,000 children waiting to be adopted in the US, basically we could give every child a home.
Those numbers just amaze me. The reason that they do, is because of how small they are. They are not large numbers or even large percents of our population by any measure. Steven is right when he says that "If everybody would be willing to simply do something to care for one of these precious treasures, I think we would be amazed by just how much we could change the world.". He is 100% correct there. If we are going to make this world a better place, we (and I mean everyone, including you, yes you) needs to step their game up and take some responsibility. It is when we do that that we will start to fix the problems that we have here in our world.
As a note: You can watch Steven and his family talk about this tragic accident tonight (08/07/08) at 9 PM Eastern Time on Larry King Live, which is on CNN (check your local listings).
Steven's commentary piece is one that speaks volumes to me. I have always felt a strong desire to not only have children, but to adopt them. In the movie "Martian Child" there is a quote: "I don't want to bring another kid into this world. But how do you argue against loving one that's already here?". That quote just resonates so deep inside of me.
Steven talks about how if "If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans." Also, according to his commentary, "In America alone, there are half a million children in foster care, and approximately 120,000 of these children are waiting to be adopted." So based off my fuzzy math, if less than one percent of the current adult population (Ages 20 to 64) in the United States (1% of 180,694,619 people) were to adopt one of these approximately 120,000 children waiting to be adopted in the US, basically we could give every child a home.
Those numbers just amaze me. The reason that they do, is because of how small they are. They are not large numbers or even large percents of our population by any measure. Steven is right when he says that "If everybody would be willing to simply do something to care for one of these precious treasures, I think we would be amazed by just how much we could change the world.". He is 100% correct there. If we are going to make this world a better place, we (and I mean everyone, including you, yes you) needs to step their game up and take some responsibility. It is when we do that that we will start to fix the problems that we have here in our world.
As a note: You can watch Steven and his family talk about this tragic accident tonight (08/07/08) at 9 PM Eastern Time on Larry King Live, which is on CNN (check your local listings).
- Current Location:Work - Albuquerque, NM 87107
- Current Mood:
thoughtful - Current Music:Kid Rock - Blue Jeans and a Rosary :: Mark Schultz - When You Give
Comments