Love Wins 

Yesterday was the kind of day which I was almost certain may have been the beginning of the apocalypse, and so I decided to celebrate my survival with a pedicure. I walked in, picked out the prettiest pink, put my tired momma feet in the water, pulled up Etsy and got to shopping. 

A mere 27 seconds later, my world was turned upside down at the arrival of two bouncing little girls. They couldn’t have been any more than five or six years old and were being treated to pedicures by their granny, promised whatever made them “feel sparkly.” At first, I smiled imagining treating my own daughter to a pedicure for the first time. But quickly, I became utterly appalled at the circumstances surrounding me. 

Each girl picked her own variation of sparkle and sat down to do her nails first. When one of the gentlemen began to paint the wrong color on one of the little girl’s nails, the grandmother hurled herself around the corner and yelled at him for the mistake. She insulted his intelligence and shouted, “Whatever she wants, she gets.” It was an obvious simple mistake, and I watched a grown man crumble beneath her rudeness. 

When the nails were done, they moved to the spa chairs snapping orders and giggling profusely at the foreign language being spoken around them. They made terrible comments with unfiltered candor and began making inappropriate gestures about a boy there with his mother in whom they apparently thought they should be interested. Except he was probably three years their senior, and they have at least another decade ahead before they should be considering the idea of the opposite sex. 

I was so saddened by their behavior but devastated by the fact that these little girls really couldn’t help it. It was clear their actions were indicative of the kind of behavior they have been shown is acceptable. These little girls will grow up and become grown women, and what sort of behavioral foundation have they been given? 

What’s wrong with society today? Among the many problems I could list, one at the forefront is the sense of entitlement being instilled in our children. No matter your background, you aren’t any better than anyone else. And you should treat people with respect and kindness no matter who they are. 

To be sure, we may never see our actions change the world. But the greatest hope we have for change starts in our children. They have the potential to be world changers, and daily, moment by moment, our actions are leading them in the direction of change– for better or worse. 

No matter the context of the conversation, LOVE WINS. People are changed when love is involved. Want to make world changers? Teach them to love…