Reading Time: 2 minutes
Open House kids playing hospitality
Playing with a friend in Uganda

A couple of weeks ago my trusty Subaru was packed with a bunch of sweaty kids (mine), headed home from our organization’s picnic. The mood was light, the windows down. We played two of my admittedly weird games:

  • Where in life do you think your sibs and yourself will be in twelve years? 
  • Where around the world could you see yourself going to help people?

The first was pretty hysterical, peppered with some interjections about

  • who will have a good-looking spouse,
  • who will be a math teacher,
  • who will be a sous chef to her sibling, and
  • who will be clueless that a girl is totally into him.

The second was just cool, in part because my kids didn’t skip a beat. They could see themselves doing something to help the powerless, and they could see it specifically.

Sure, their dreams may be a little off of actual future reality (“I’m going to run a restaurant in Indonesia and give people jobs and give out water filters”). But as a starting point? I really liked it.

Worldview Under Construction

What this is not: some “I’ve got my act  together, and you should, too!” post. (Trust me. That is not the current theme of my parenting.) This is more of, “What if poverty awareness was easier to create in our family cultures than we think?”

What if talking about poverty is something we build on–rather than offer as whiplash on a missions trip when kids are 16? What if it’s something we can do something about, rather than just shake our heads over?

I cobbled together 12 questions you can ask your kids to help global compassion be something that’s right here, that we can talk about on a funky-smelling ride home. I’m posting them on my friend Kristen’s site today–WeAreThatFamily.com. Hop on over and check ’em out–and share them if you like them.  

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