Nicholeen

East Africa Needs Our Prayers

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The WOW organization has been staying close to women in East Africa and is concerned to find that the struggles in that part of the world might be going from bad to worse soon. Between the first locust attack on farmlands in many provinces, excessive rains and flooding that recently destroyed villages, and now quarantine for COVID-19 they have lost their crops and can’t work to get money for food that they need.

Quarantine in Africa means starvation for millions. Many buy food each day after they get paid for their day’s work. But, if the virus spreads the hospitals are in no way equipped to handle the pandemic. They are in a very bad situation. Prayer is the best option they’ve got.

COVID-19 Situation in East Africa

There are six countries making up the East Africa Community namely: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic is a pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019. wikipedia.org.  

With the known mode of transmission, many countries made decisions to confine their citizens for protection against COVID-19.  The East African countries were equally affected.  As it is now, Kenya is having the highest number of people infected with COVID-19 among the East African Countries.  Kenya recorded its first case of the coronavirus outbreak on March 13, 2020.  COVID-19 has changed the way Kenyans live, love and express that love; COVID-19 has shaped social behavior across the country.  Today April 9, 2020, all the major newspapers had a similar heading “We are standing together with Kenyans”, media houses united on COVID-19 issue.  By March 20th, all schools in Kenya had closed, shortly after that, there was curfew between 7:00pm to 5:00am.  While the curfew was on, the President announced a lockdown of Nairobi Metropolitan Area on April 6th.  We are all hopeful that these measures will help Kenyans avert contracting of COVID-19 in large number.  A short while ago, the Minister for health has also announced that anybody walking out of their houses, must wear face masks.  The Kenyan Government has allowed major tailoring institutions to produce large numbers of face masks made from cloth material.  The masks can be washed and re used, the large numbers of masks will serve many Kenyans, some of the needy Kenyans will be given masks for free.   So far, there are 184 people infected with COVID-19 in Kenya. (107 males and 77 females) 3 are below 15 years, 49 are between ages 15-29; 119 are between ages 30-59 and 13 are above 60 years.

Tanzania reported their first COVID-19 on March 16th, 2020 and currently they have 25 people infected.  Tanzania, however, have their citizens go to work as normal without any restrictions, lockdowns or curfews.  Burundi announced their first two COVID-19 cases on March 26th, currently they have 25 cases.   Rwanda announced their first COVID-19 case on March 14th, 2020, currently there are 104 people infected by COVID-19 cases.  The government of Rwanda has taken several measures to curb the spread of this pandemic including total lockdown for 21 days. South Sudan announced the first COVID-19 case today April 9, 2020.  Uganda confirmed their first case of COVID-19 on March 21st and immediately implemented the measures to protect the citizens.  Total lockdown is what Ugandans are going through.  No work, no school and no business as usual.

What is common with all the cases in East Africa is that the majority of COVID-19 cases travelled from outside their countries.  What is also common is that there are community infections going on within the mentioned countries after the first few cases were identified.  Culturally, there are Africans who seal the business deal by shaking hands. This is common among the groups who sell livestock in the open local markets for a living.  Due to COVID-19, some communities have innovatively started hitting the walking sticks as a sign of shaking hands in the process of agreeing on the price of the cattle to be sold.  Many open markets have been closed, making it difficult for the small businesspeople to survive and creating a lot of outcry.  Schools have also been closed.  Families are spending a lot of time in the house which is a very unusual experience.  It is emerging now that in some cases, there is increased gender violence in the homes.

More Trials Might Be Coming!

Jessica Corbett, who writes for Common Dreams reported on April 10, 2020. “While much of the world focuses on the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 1.6 million people across the globe, East Africa is battling the worst invasion of desert locusts in decades—a monthslong “scourge of biblical proportions” that experts warn could get worse with a larger second wave already arriving in parts of the region.”

So many crops have already been lost to the first invasion of these locusts. Growers have reported to WOW that they are waiting for the second planting season of the year, which starts in about 6 weeks. Another invasion of locusts will make planting impossible again. It seems that food shortages will be imminent if crops fail. Additionally, vital sources of income will disappear with this next crisis.

WOW urges the world to pray each day, morning and night, for East Africa and for all those being sorely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a time when the world must band together in faith. We must share everything we can, but especially our faith.

Love in the Time of Corona

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In these challenging times, when our lives and liberties hang ever more in the balance, there is really only one thing upon which we should be focusing: Love. Love for our families – and most particularly our children – is the thing which will pull us through. With that being the case, one might expect the very first priority to be the preservation of life, with the immediate closure of non-essential medical facilities, like abortion clinics.

As of 30th March, 2020, a quarter of UK abortion facilities were closed because of the Coronavirus, considerably diminishing the estimated 44,000 abortions which would, otherwise, have taken place over the next thirteen weeks https://mashable.com/article/coronavirus-abortion-access-uk/?europe=true. 

Forty-four thousand – forty-four THOUSAND terminated pregnancies – in thirteen weeks? Are the people in the United Kingdom even aware that such a vast number of abortions are taking place, with 98% of them being conducted at the taxpayers’ expense? One doubts it: the number of abortions in the UK are well-hidden from the British people and for good reason – there would surely be public outcry if citizens were aware of the enormous number of babies killed by the NHS.

It might seem like a miracle, therefore, that even some reduction is happening as a result of the current pandemic but, sadly, this is not quite the case. Whilst the mainstream media run puff-pieces on individual women in extraordinary and life-threatening circumstances who are unable to access abortion facilities, intended to tug on the public heartstrings, the majority of women are being put at tremendous risk by the decision to allow them to access abortion pills at home.  In an unprecedented action which directly contravenes in 1967 Abortion Act, women can now access abortion at home, without medical supervision, proper oversight or the legal requirement of two doctors’ signatures https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-52092131.

On 30th March, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (an, Orwellian and euphemistically-named entity which is, in fact, the UK’s largest abortion provider) put out the following Tweet, gleefully announcing that women could access “telemedical” terminations, following a telephone or email conversation with a medical practitioner:

Vulnerable women, poor women, women without psychological, familial or medical support, are now able to take abortion pills – known to pose serious risks to physical and mental health – without even a face-to-face consultation.

This development, effectively decriminalising all abortion in the UK and circumventing its already lax and covert practice, was primarily led by Jess Phillips, the outspoken communist Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley, who was infamously caught laughing on camera at the discussion of male suicide. 

Ms. Phillips said “I always have and always will trust women to make the decisions about their bodies.

“For me that isn’t just a passive view, it has taken struggle and effort for that right to choose to exist. I will continue to be active in that struggle.”

Whilst her statement appears to put emphasis on a woman’s right to choose, in reality it removes women’s choices, failing to give them the full information about the physical, spiritual and psychological effects of “telemedical” abortions, performed without medical supervision or patient awareness about the dangers of this unprecedented practice.

Women are being put at risk. Sold the lie that the “bundle of foetal cells” feels no pain, has no tangible signs of life and is not a living baby – tricked into believing that there are no serious and potentially life-threatening consequences to the abortion pill, prescribed without the support of a physician who should explain the risks of haemorrhaging – their vulnerabilities are being capitalised upon, thanks to the unscrupulous and profiteering practices of the abortion industry in the UK.

At this time, a time when we must all rely upon the love and support of our families and communities, surely the UK has a responsibility to desperate women who feel they have nowhere else to turn? Surely our leaders need to be focusing their efforts on protecting life – all life – the lives of mothers and of babies – and giving women all of the information they need, in order to make informed choices about their futures and the futures of their children?

This shameless exploitation of fear and defencelessness must be stopped: in this time of love and family, women need to be given the real pro-choice option – the option of compassion. The choice to love.

Authored by “K- From the U.K.”

The Power of Women! International Women’s Day 2020

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March 8th is International Women’s Day. This is a day when we focus on what it really means to be a woman, and what sets women apart in this world of busy humans running through a rat-race of endless appointments and jobs that need to be done. To determine the true value of women, it’s worth putting the value of a woman in perspective. 

Disturbing Testimony!

This really happened. While sitting in a legislative committee meeting a few weeks ago, a woman commenting during the public comment section of an abortion bill presentation actually, in all seriousness said, “I wish my mother would have aborted me.” 

Never in all my years of working with women have I heard a woman disregard her own life in this way. I don’t know the mental condition or much of the life history of this woman, but I know that this type of sentiment is so rare, that the room was instantly shocked that a person could even suggest such a thing. 

No matter how hard or bad a life is, WOW believes that all life has value. Sure, some people who have been abused or mistreated may question the value of their life experiences. But, we know that survivors end up making strong contributions to society, and that sadness or sorrow leads to learning in its own way. Life isn’t perfect. But, that is actually the point. Despite the imperfectness of the life experiences, we still learn and live and grow and love and succeed in unique ways. 

Power of Women

Mothers start this journey for all of us. The birth process and life afterward won’t be easy for them or us, but they know there’s value in it anyway. They won’t be perfect. We won’t be perfect. But, they exercise their power to choose to bring us here regardless. 

The greatest power that women have is the power to choose to have children. There is no greater human power than the power to create another human being. No other talent, project, job, or activity a woman does can be compared to the ability women have to populate the world. 

When pro-choice advocates scream for more choice for women, WOW knows every woman does have a choice to engage her reproductive powers or not. She has the power to create children and the power to choose to engage in the beginning of the reproductive process (sexual intimacy) or not as well. (Except in cases of rape of course.) 

Women of Influence 

Not only do women have the power to get the people here, but they are the power that sculpts the ideas of the next generation too. While, TV, education, and media outlets have done a lot to capture the attention of the youngsters and have diligently tried to teach them what to think, some how mothers seem to still have more influence on the life of the child if she chooses to actively take the opportunity to use it. 

This power of influence is a power that literally transforms the world. I’m sure some power hungry companies and government officials have wondered how to get as much power as a woman has over her child. They have tried to simulate that power. But nothing really measures up. Wrapped in the arms and love of a mother who brought her child into the world resides the power to stop conflicts, defend truths, and teach nations. 

Unfortunately, the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this article wasn’t taught about her glory and power as a woman. I never thought I’d see the day when a woman would say she disregarded her own life. I know severe amounts of abuse can cause a person to become detached from basic realities. My woman heart reaches out to this woman. Please know that your pain has been felt, your story taught me a lesson. Even though you think your life is pointless, it still influences people. 

All women, whether they are mothers or not, have a motherly influence on the world. Plan today how you will influence the world for good. This is your international day to be grateful you are alive and that you are a woman! 

Happy International Women’s Day! 

Donate to WOW! Help us help more women and families around the world! 

The Year The UN Got Cancelled!

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The Worldwide Organization for Women [WOW] has been going to the United Nations CSW [Conference on the Status of Women] conference for many years. But this year we are meeting with the unexpected. The CSW conference, that is as predictable as the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade, has decide to cancel.  

The CSW official statement released March 2, 2020 said, “Following the UN Secretary-General’s recommendation to Member States to amend the format of the 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in light of the current concerns regarding coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an informal meeting took place today. The Commission decided that the 64th session of the Commission will convene on 9 March, at 10.00 a.m. (EST), for a procedural meeting. The meeting will include opening statements, followed by the adoption of the draft Political Declaration and action on any other draft resolutions. The session will then suspend until further notification. No general debate will take place and all side events planned by Member States and the UN system in conjunction with CSW 64 will be cancelled.”  

So, not only has this new coronavirus been able to reroute cruise ships and stop flights to certain parts of Asia, it has now stopped scheduled global conferences.  

WOW thinks it’s wise for the UN to cancel CSW this year, even though we are aware that this cancellation is a hardship for many people who were traveling from around the world to New York City to attend.  

This year was a big year for CSW because it was the 25th anniversary for the UN Beijing conference which provided a critical step forward for the protection of rights and the acknowledgement of the value of the family unit in societies.  

WOW had a great parallel event planned to remember Beijing and to point out where societies can still improve, or have missed the mark, but we will have to wait to see if this event will now happen at a future time.  

Wherever you happen to be in the world, take precautions to keep your family safe during the end of this sickness season.

10 Lessons for Listening With Love

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Much emotional agony is avoided and more relationship healing is possible when a person learns to listen with love. There were two similar conversations that had very different results. The first conversation was between a mother and her son. The son told his mother about a problem he was having with a friend, but she began a chore while he was talking to her. She let her son speak, but was distracted with her to To Do list and didn’t really listen with love.

With no solution to his problem, he was lost in thought. Then His father started a conversation. “You’re deep in thought son. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

Immediately the son explained the same story he had shared with his mother that afternoon. But this second conversation was different than the first, because the son left feeling like everything would be okay, like someone really understood, and like he knew what he must do for his friend next.

Why were the results of his father’s conversation so different than those of his mother’s? One parent was just there for the story, and the other parent knew how to listen with love.

Learning to Listen With Love

I’m a talker. This is my strength and my weakness. My brain naturally thinks of what it needs to say next very quickly, sometimes even before the person I’m talking to stops telling me what they want to say. The result of this quick thinking brain problem is that I can interrupt people, especially people who talk slow or take a long time to form their ideas. I’ve known the problem exists and have been working on it for a long time. Today I’d like to share some of the key lessons I’ve learned that have helped me listen with love.

These lessons aren’t just for talkers. Even people who aren’t quick to talk or form ideas can get lost in their own thoughts and forget to listen and really understand when someone is talking. I’m not perfect at listening with love yet. I have a feeling that it’s a lifetime pursuit. But, my conversations are significantly more connective than they were 25 years ago, 10 years ago, or even 2 years ago. This realization of this progress inspires me to continue  with my goal to really understand people. To do this I have to always focus on listening with love.

10 Listening Lessons

1. Focus your whole attention on them. One of the biggest reasons the father in this story had such a positive impact on the son, as opposed to the mother , is because the father took the time to focus his whole attention on his son. He didn’t look at screens or do chores. Nothing says love like giving our precious time to another person.

2. Silence is okay. Some people think that silence is an awkward feeling, and they do anything necessary to fill that silence with conversation, even if it means never allowing another person to talk. I’ve had to tell myself that silence is okay, even healthy. People need time to process what has been said and what they think about it. Embrace silence.

3. Sometimes just think but don’t say. In addition to embracing silence when it comes, sometimes we need to create some silence on our own. Maybe this was the hardest lesson for me to learn. I remember challenging myself not to talk in certain settings so that others could have more of a chance to talk. I couldn’t turn my brain off, but I could keep my mouth shut, for the most part, to let someone else shine. As long as I’m looking at the speaker, I’m still engaged in the conversation. This is really just being humble in social settings. Listening with love means first giving someone else the chance to speak.

4. Look at the person. Speak with your eyes. Looking in another person’s eyes is the easiest way to bond and show love and caring. When they’re talking, when you’re talking, and when no one is talking, take time to look into their eyes with love and kindness. Communicate the truths, “I really enjoy being with you,” and, “You matter to me,” with your eyes.

5. Judging first is always a trap. Judgements are required for solving problems. But if judgements come before all the facts, then they can be very destructive to relationships. Don’t decide what the root of the problem is until you’ve heard the whole story and asked some questions for clarification. Listening with love and understanding means giving the speaker time to tell their whole story. If you’re the kind of person who likes to ‘cut to the chase,’ save time, or solve a problem quickly, you could subconsciously turn your brain off when someone needs your listening ear. You know who you are.

6. Analyze their words before planning your words. Think their words twice before you speak. This habit is a great way to make sure you don’t judge them or try to solve their problem too quickly. This also helps you focus on what they are saying instead of worrying about what you will say next.

7. Value them and their experiences. Every story someone tells doesn’t have to relate to a story you’ve had in your own life. People who always try to follow up a story with one of their own stories give the impression that they think their experience is more significant than the experience shared. Sometimes it creates connections to share a similar story, but usually it steals the attention in a conversation. Be very careful. Listening with love means they are important enough to get time to let their story or experience shine in the conversation for a while.

8. Recognize that when they say something, they might have just heard it for the first time and could change their mind later. Don’t be overly concerned with word choice or emotional sentiment. People misrepresent what they mean all the time. When listening to someone tell an experience, let them tell it for their benefit as much as for yours. And remember, sometimes they just needed to tell someone in order to find the solution to their problem or to recognize the fault they had in a situation. Be that sounding board.

9. Ask questions. Conversations often get one sided or selfish if no one is willing to ask questions. Questions show that the listener really cares.

10. Repeat back what they said. Repeating back key points someone shared in conversation does a few things. It helps a lazy listener stay on task, it gives a listener time to think of what to say, and it shows the other speaker that they were understood.

Just like my self-government journey to listen with love, each of us have behaviors we want to change about ourselves. Listening with love has changed my relationships with my husband, my children, God, my friends, and my acquaintances. I’m not perfect yet, but I know self-government is possible in all the areas of my life because of the success I’ve had with this one issue. Which of the 10 lessons do you need to work on most to become a better listener? Pick one to work on this week. Small, deliberate actions towards a personal goal can change a life forever.

Learn more self-government skills to strengthen your relationships at the upcoming Teaching Self-Government Parenting Mastery Training. Details are here.

WOW Marched For Life! Did You?

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Utah capitol rotunda

   On Saturday, January 25th, WOW members and leadership stood with people all over the world in an international “March for Life” rally. WOW attended one such rally with thousands of Utahns in the rotunda of the Utah State Capital. It was impressive to see the crowds of women, men, and children as well as the diverse religious and ethic groups. Many pro-life organizations were also there to show their commitment to preserving the lives of thousands of annually aborted unborn Utah children. Each rally participant was given a name of an unborn child and information for how to contact their legislators and be an influence on behalf of their unborn child.

  The leader of Pro-life Utah, Mary Taylor, spoke, and recognized Utah House of Representative, Cheryl Acton, and Utah Eagle Forum leaders Gayle Ruzika and Maryanne Christensen for their work in 2019 on behalf of unborn children. There were other legislators who also spoke out on behalf of the unborn child and in favor of the pro-life bills that they are sponsoring.

  Cheers and applause resounded in the rotunda when an announcement was made that President Donald Trump not only spoke in support for the “March For Life” campaign, but participated in the march himself. No other president is known to ever have done this.

  Dusty, the last speaker, was a girl who gave an emotionally painful story of going through an abortion and dealing with the consequences.

  Then there was a moment of silence for all the aborted children. 3000 babies a year are aborted in Utah alone! Annually the United States aborts 3000 babies per day, so Utah is faring much better than some states. To put this in perspective, 3000 children would fill a typical Utah High School.

  Following the inspiring speeches, the rally participants then marched around the perimeter of the State Capital grounds, showing support for all unborn children. Pink and blue ribbons and flags were on display as a memorial to all babies who have lost their lives in this global genocide called abortion.

No matter where you were this past Saturday around the world, WOW hopes you valued children, babies, and the parents who choose to raise them.

    

School Districts Over-Stepping Their Bounds

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Austin, Texas parents have a Texas sized problem. “Austin ISD has broken the sacred trust between school and parent” said Texas Values spokesman, David Walls, when interviewed about Austin’s new elementary and middle school sex education policy. Walls was referring to the Austin School District mandate to change sex education to include the teaching of children about how to have anal sex and how to put a condom on an erect penis as well as much more.

The Austin School District hadn’t changed it’s sex education policy for elementary and middle school students for “over a decade” and so they figured it was about time. WOW is disappointed that school administrators would allow themselves to be swayed to change a long standing policy that was working well for students with the illusion that somehow time changes the need to present sexual morals and proper sexual conduct differently. If something was improper ten years ago, why would it suddenly become proper 10 years later? It doesn’t make logical sense.

One frustrated father told Austin ISD, “You have overstepped.” While advocates for the change were focusing on the importance of advocating new gender identity and sexual orientation theory, parents were feeling disregarded. Who should make moral decisions for schools; bureaucrats and activists or parents? WOW stands with Texas parents by thinking parents hold that sacred right, and should be respected.

This new policy change will not only expose elementary aged children to the intricacies of sex but is also designed to remove important and key words from the vocabulary of children. According to Todd Starnes, “The school district will also begin instructing students to no longer use words like ‘mother’ or ‘father’…and ‘mom’ or ‘dad.”

The district materials insist that “gender inclusive language” be used. This means terms such as “male” and “female” would also be inappropriate words to use in class.

Parents are outraged that the school district they trusted is forcing word censoring based on ideological agendas, and forcing content that sexualizes children. Parents are calling this “pornography” and “government sanctioned child abuse.” But, advocates for the policy change are simply calling it “other options.” Will the policy change really be presented as having more “options,” or will parents who haven’t been following the school district debate be caught unaware and have their children sexualized right under their noses?

One of the three pillars that the WOW organization is founded on is sovereignty. This new Texas sex ed policy violates the sovereignty of parents and families in Texas. Until parental rights are honored by government and school administrators again, over the social pressure of sex activists, the children will have no true protection.

“Choose Not To Be Harmed”

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One day my father told me something so profound that it literally changed my social life and my personal empowerment forever. After I finished telling him about how another child at school had been mean to me, he said, “Nicholeen, sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you.”

I’m guessing that I wasn’t the only child raised in the last quarter of the 1900s to be counseled by their parents or teachers with this advice (my dad was a teacher).

When I heard this advice, I immediately recognized it as true. Of course! Sticks and stones could cut me, bruise me, and cause me to bleed, but words were just things spit out into the air that I could choose to do whatever I wanted to with. This simple little truth gave me permission to ignore the words I didn’t like or knew weren’t true. And, since I knew my dad was the strongest, smartest guy in the world, I started ignoring mean words and ended up finding personal power.

I wish I could say I immediately started calmly ignoring. I didn’t. At first, I did a fighting kind of ignoring,  which wasn’t really ignoring at all. When another child would say mean things, which has been renamed bullying today, I would holler at them, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but your words will never hurt me.”

When I hollered my wise reply back at them, I immediately recognized that had I lost the upper hand. They would say, “Well, it looks like our words did hurt you or you wouldn’t have to yell back at us.”

I changed. I decided that if I really wanted to be safe from those unkind words, I had to not care that they said something I didn’t like or agree with. I had to allow them to say whatever they wanted to and choose not to get emotional about it. When I finally chose not to be emotionally reactive, I found my power. That’s what Dad was telling me to do with his “sticks and stones” advice, but it took me a few tries to fully understand how to apply this wisdom to my life.

Choose Not To Be Harmed

Marcus Aurelius said, “Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.”

If “sticks and stones” was good enough for a child of the 1980s, then why isn’t it good enough for children or adults nowadays? Why are there so many wars over words and talks of violence? Why are there so many offenses and hurt feelings that people won’t ignore? Where has all the power gone?

Dad drew a line for me that day. There was what was said by others, and what I thought about what was said. Those were two different things. Being emotionally reactive was not considered a plan for a successful life in the 1980s. In fact, this was the dominant way of thinking until recently. Dad wasn’t saying that words couldn’t be cruel or inappropriate to say to another person. Of course they could. Some things shouldn’t be said and are even intended to hurt the feelings of the other person. What my dad was saying was that a truly powerful person knows that they have total control over how they allow their emotions to relate to those words.

Dad’s advice challenged my feelings about words and the amount of power I thought I had. What if the person on the receiving end of the unkind words felt completely empowered to take control of their own thoughts? What if they pushed the emotions away before it was ever allowed to take root in them? What if each person was able to decide what truths or lies they allow into their minds and hearts?

The Coddling of Society

Look around. There are more emotionally fragile victims than ever before. Many youth are feeling confined and defined by their life experiences and hardships instead of rising above them and focusing on their human power to overcome trials.

On September 11, 2001, thousands died in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, which started a war on terror that affected the world. Instead of hiding in their houses and focusing on their victimhood, people emotionally stood up and carried each other through the tragedy. People worked all day and night, putting their own lives at risk to save and locate people trapped in the wreckage. Neighbors called each other and prayed for each other. People donated money, food, supplies, time — literally anything needed to help make that hard time easier. Everyone stood a little taller, smiled a little more deliberately, and hugged a little more in an effort to really lift someone up. Americans, Canadians and many others worked harder, complained less, and found an inner strength they never knew they had. People generally become stronger because of war times and difficult challenges. But, in times of peace and comfort we behave surprisingly different.

A person has to logically and consciously allow themselves to change for the better, especially in times of peace. In their 2018 book, The Coddling of the American Mind, authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explain that one of the “great untruths” of our time is “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you weaker.” This means that society is obsessing over what has gone wrong in their lives and being pessimistic. People displaying bad behaviors are given excuses for their actions instead of correction or motivation to move on. And, words are the new violence that people can’t seem to get over. Each unkind word or social media comment turns into a burden to carry. Ignoring the words doesn’t seem to even be an option for some people.

Lukianoff and Haidt suggest the I-Generation is struggling the most with this new emotionally reactive living. They said, “…students make a serious mistake when they interpret words—even words spoken with hatred—as violence.” I-Gen-ers are now equating words to violence. If someone feels bad about something that has been said, others feel justified in retaliating with physical violence; bullying and assault. This explains the riots on college campuses in recent years.

Safe Vs Strong

Many adults nowadays aren’t reaching their youth because they see the world through a be-strong, learn-to-deal-with-adversity lens. Their youth are being trained socially to interact tentatively and fearfully with the world, like people who’ve been hurt and not recovered would behave. The youth want safety because they have been kept in a state of fragility, but many of their parents want them to step up and grow up.

How can we help young people find joy, and not become the victims of their circumstances? Russell M. Nelson said, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”

Society’s goal cannot be emotional safety. Of course, there is emotional abuse and that should never be condoned, but we are meant to get through life, not be protected from it. Life will never be emotionally or physically safe enough to protect everyone’s feelings. No “safe space” or word censoring rule will stop a person from feeling attacked if they are looking for the next attack. Here are three strategies parents can do to promote resilience and emotional strength, as well as decrease the social craving for “safe spaces.”

3 Strategies for Being Emotionally Strong

First, focus on who we are, where we are going, and what life is really about. Joy really has “everything to do with the focus of our lives.” When parents focus more on creating portfolios for their children than on building character and connection in their children, the whole family loses focus. When preparing youth for future financial success takes priority over preparing for future relationship success through happy family relationships, our youth lose their identities. Good family relationships, living according to virtue, and solid religious beliefs all bring greater lasting joy than financial success and social status can.

Second, increase patience and endurance by teaching the children to wait for things they want. Patience leads to increased responsibility for good outcomes in life. It teaches cause and effect and shows youth their circumstances can change with their own hard work. We have to stop enabling our children by giving them so much. The lesson of delayed gratification is a hard lesson to teach, especially if a parent could easily buy the desired bicycle or game, but it is one of the most valuable lessons to learn for the child. The more affluent a society gets, the less patient and whinier the population becomes. Nothing is ever good enough for a person with everything. If I can obtain any comfort or pleasure I desire when I want it with two day shipping and without having to talk to anyone about what I need, then why would I expect my discomfort from a mean word to go away any differently than instantly?

Third, teach children to ignore the things that bother them for the sake of their own emotional strength. This means having good old-fashioned grit in the face of adversity and mean words. To attempt to be ideologically protected is not a good life goal, so we can’t protect the youth from new or different ideas. In fact, learning new things and exchanging ideas is part of life. If a person has to know everything before they learn anything, they are short-sighted and setting themselves up for disappointment.

To teach children to ignore mean words, parents can prepare their children to accept “no” answers from them about everyday things when they are young, and then transition the child to knowing how to give themselves “no” answers as they mature. Then, when mean words or different ideas that they don’t agree with come along, they can ignore their emotions about the ideas and words by giving themselves a “no” answer for emotionally reacting.

Hopefully, if they are able to learn calmness and accepting “no” answers, they will be able to both push unwanted emotional responses away while focusing on listening to what the other person has to say and on valuing the other person even if they may ultimately have to disagree on the issue being discussed.

No external source can provide safety to a person who is determined to feel emotional. We have to choose to be unharmed; to control ourselves and our emotions. Not to “stuff” our emotions, but to decide which emotions are productive and which end up putting us in emotional bondage. Self-government is the act of choosing not to be harmed, even if someone intends to harm us.

The only true safety a person can ever have is the assurance that they can be okay no matter their circumstances. Ironically, in the age of “safe spaces,” we aren’t recognizing the safest condition a person can be in, which is emotional security despite adversity. It’s called “enduring to the end,” and it creates peace of mind and joy no matter what words try to hurt us.

This FREE Parenting Assessment Course will give you more direction in helping yourself and your children live more self-governed lives while unifying your relationships.

Respecting Yourself Never Sounded Worse! -UK

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Does every good term have to be hijacked, turned around and sent back out to the public as a wolf in sheep’s clothing these days? WOW is constantly disappointed at the international manipulative use of seemingly good words. We have to fight against dangerous terms like “maternal health” and “age appropriate” because these terms and others like them are striped of their moral or factual foundation and given a subjective/moral relativistic spin instead. Such is the case with the term “Respect Yourself,” which is the name of a government funded British educational website for youth ages 13 and up that boasts having a “sextionary” for kids to access anything they want to know about sex and sexuality.

This tax money funded, controversial website has been live since 2013 in Britain, but has just recently been disabled due to the public outcry from a diverse British population. WOW applauds the The Family Education Trust, hardworking parents, and citizens in Britain who have put so much time and effort into drawing attention to the problem website and getting citizens informed and active at solving the problem.

Amy Danahay of “Respect Yourself” told Huffington Post: “We have completed the young people’s wish list. They asked for the sextionary, pleasure zones and the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered honestly.”

I seriously doubt that young people wanted to know the majority of the grotesque sexual acts. As I was looking into the problem website in the UK I found myself, as a married woman with four children who has had sex more times than I’ve ever counted, asking “what on earth is that term?” The site explains more kinky behaviors than a person would ever need to ask, or has even thought to ask for that matter. Clearly, the sextionary website is just another way the sexualization of children is happening under the guise of education.

Speaking of education, I’d be curious to know how the site information is delivered to the children. Are they told about it at school? If so, has it been approved by a curriculum board or governing body tasked with keeping children safe? It is completely unethical for tax money and government employees, who have a position of trust with students, to be used for the sexual grooming of children.

In a day and age when child trafficking is becoming an increasingly serious problem, I’d think that officials would connect the dots and not promote any educational materials that would groom children to be targets for traffickers. Years ago top porn producer was interviewed. He was asked how they train the children for their porn performances and he replied, “We don’t really have to do much. They come porn ready.” This tells us what kinds of children are easily trafficked; the ones who have gotten into sexual stuff.

How could a child come to a trafficker/porn producer “porn ready” unless they have already been experimenting with porn or graphic sexuality? Children aren’t sensual and explicit, that behavior has to be trained by someone else. As a foster parent I was trained to look for children who were too sensual, so that we could detect possible sexual abuse in the child’s past. Is it possible that western society has lost all common sense when it comes to keeping children’s bodies safe from predators? Isn’t this “Respect Yourself” website just another manipulation of a good term that is preying on the children of Britain?

The Comrade Who Rocks The Cradle…

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This piece about how British liberties are being systematically taken from families was contributed by British WOW members.

For the last few days, we in the UK have had a reprieve from the Great Brexit Betrayal, as our Parliament of Traitors has gone into recess, in order for our MPs to enjoy their party conference season: a time when politicians and their party members retire to the seaside, congratulate themselves on a job well done and scheme for the reopening of Parliament in a few weeks’ time. And, oh, hasn’t it given us some laughs? A cursory glance at Twitter will show just about anyone how hilarious it has been – how the country’s conservatives (with the notably small “c”) have chuckled at the Labour Party, in particular, and their folly. “What larks, Pip”, they giggle. “What larks!”

We have seen, for example, Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Minister, standing on a podium before her party delegates, addressing them all as “comrades” and regaling them all with tales of her youthful dalliances. With a wink and a nod reminiscent of Hattie Jacques in the old Carry On films, the venerable Ms. Thornberry told the packed room that, as she was lying with her head in a gutter following an accident, her life flashing before her eyes, she thought: “Blimey, that was fun … and it wasn’t running through fields of wheat, comrades!” The compliant BBC dutifully let the camera pan the room, showing how the audience laughed …Oooh, Matron! Saucy! All the while, conservative Twitter shook their heads and collectively smirked at her silliness. What larks!

Then there was the risible Diane Abbott, Shadow Home Secretary, butt of a thousand memes and alumnus, no doubt, of the same School of Mythical Economics as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, cheerfully informing a BBC reporter that, despite having sent her own child to a fee-paying school, she nevertheless supported the Labour Party’s proposals to “abolish” private schools and “integrate” their wealth into the State Education system…

… and it is here, I am afraid, that the laughs began to die down. Just a few short months ago, this suggestion was being floated by a handful of backbench MPs, whilst the country’s middle classes smiled and thought that such a thing could never, really, happen. Surely nobody could seriously believe that the long arm of the State would reach into the privately-owned property of independent schools and appropriate their wealth, to redistribute it as they see fit? No, certainly not. To remove parental choice from hardworking mothers and fathers who go without, in order to give their children the very best start they can afford? Never.

Yet, here we are. In Britain now, our Opposition Party openly states that it intends not only to prevent parents from choosing the best school for their child but, moreover, to repossess the finances of those schools (which are only slightly less constrained by The National Curriculum – something similar to the American Common Core) and redistribute them into State Education. Naturally, there is one, very notable exception: as pointed out by redoubtable journalist and conservative talking head, Katie Hopkins, this plan does not, of course, apply to the many taxpayer-funded Islamic schools which have sprung up across the nation in recent years. 

To each according to his needs, indeed.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49798861

In this country, The National Curriculum “sets out the programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects at all 4 key stages” and “all local-authority-maintained schools must teach these programmes of study.” https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum. There is no room for manoeuvre and all teachers must adhere to it. But what of its content? 

In December last year, we learned that, “in a victory for transgender rights campaigners”, a school in Brighton had begun teaching primary school children (ages four to eleven) that “boys can have periods too”. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/16/boys-can-have-periods-schoolchildren-taught-latest-victory-transgender/. 

In March, fiery stand-offs took place outside of a primary school in Birmingham, as Moslem parents removed their children from classes in protest at the “No Outsiders” sex education programme, which “they claimed promoted gay and transgender lifestyles” and told Moslem children that “Gay is OK.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/09/protests-against-lgbt-lessons-in-birmingham-primary-school-resume. 

Recently, a friend and home-schooling parent drew my attention to a Key Stage 2 reading comprehension assignment which she had discovered in the National Curriculum English handbook. Focusing on the children’s story Bill’s New Frock by Anne Fine, the tasks are designed to “make children aware of gender inequality” and ask them to “imagine waking to discover that they are a different gender.”  All very worthy, I am sure you will agree.

The same Labour Party that wishes to remove parents’ choices when it comes to independent schools has also put forward proposals to “make climate change a core part of the curriculum” addressing “the ecological and social impact of climate change.” Irrespective of the controversy that there is no conclusive scientific evidence that manmade climate change actually exists, children are, under these proposals, to be taught its effects as undisputed fact, in order to prepare them for the “human impacts” (read “immigration”, “increased governmental control” and “higher taxation”) which will inevitably ensue, turning our youth into anxious, Children of the Corn clones of the terrifyingly totalitarian  and pitifully exploited Greta Thunberg. https://www.tes.com/news/make-climate-change-core-part-curriculum-labour-says 

Even more worryingly, those who question the received wisdom of manmade climate change could soon be facing legal sanctions, as was debated on 17th September on BBC Radio 2’s daily phone-in programme, The Jeremy Vine Show. At present, of course, this is only a discussion but as my earlier examples illustrate, discussion has its way of intruding into policy … and policy has a way of becoming Law.

From Cradle to Grave

The purpose of this article, however, is not solely to discuss the tenets of The National Curriculum in depth, although I may write another on this topic at a later date. Rather, as the title suggests, its intention is to explore the ways in which the long arm of the State increasingly invades the private family lives of citizens. Which leads me to a few more suggestions which have recently come to light.

Some years ago, I visited the Museum of East Germany in Berlin and saw an exhibition of the Communist Party’s pledge concerning State governance “from the cradle to the grave.” Under the guise of promoting equality for mothers, babies were taken into State-run childcare at a few months old, in order that both parents could quickly return to work. They then stayed in government facilities until the end of their formal education, ensuring, of course, that their indoctrination could be absolute and that they would not encounter dissenting opinions which opposed those of the Communist Party. It should come as a surprise to absolutely no-one, then, that similar ideas are now being discussed in Britain, where debates are taking place regarding longer school days, increased childcare, shorter school holidays and the free provision of breakfast, lunch and dinner – all at the taxpayer’s expense and all designed to ensure that parents’ working days are uninterrupted and that their children’s daily care is provided by professionals, rather than their own loving family. Why run the risk of allowing parents to promote dissenting opinions, when the State can raise a child so much better? Similarly, the Media’s insidious drip-feeding of anti-home-schooling programmes and articles which imply that only dangerous cranks and oddballs would remove their children from the school system, just as the practice is becoming more popular, can be seen as part of the same process: “trust us”, says the State, “we know what is best for your family”. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/home-schooling-department-education-damian-hinds-radicailation-illegal-schools-offrolling-a8849841.html

“Surely this is enough?” I hear you cry. “Surely there can be no more? Surely it will suffice, at least for now, to propose the removal of parents’ school choices, to indoctrinate their children with uncorroborated pseudoscience, to propose the care of their children from morning to night and to demonise those who opt-out of the educational system?” Well, not quite – because the socialist Scottish National Party went one step further still and put forth a proposal to allocate a “named person” for every child in Scotland, to monitor family life, provide a point of contact outside of the home and to ensure that no child is being exposed to ideas or practices which dissent from the ideological aims of the Scottish Government. Mercifully, the plan has been revoked – at least for the time being – as parents argued that it amounted to nothing more than a “Snoopers’ Charter”, terrifyingly reminiscent of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four – but the proposal was made and, as we have already seen, proposals do have a tendency to wend their ways into legislation … eventually. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35752756

Be Warned

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, firstly, I am giving you a warning. 

To my American friends: we in the UK have become so accustomed to Government interference that many people now passively accept this growing encroachment upon our private lives; that which seemed impossible just a few short years ago is now being openly discussed at party political conferences and proposed as legislation. Whilst all of this may sound outlandish to you now, please bear in mind that it did once to us, too – but the gradual drip-feeding of these notions has already begun in the USA, where States like California have shoehorned the LGBT agenda into the school curriculum and proposed making ethnic studies mandatory. 

Secondly, to my fellow Britons: this has to stop. There is no end to the incursions which the State will make upon our family lives – no proposal will be too extreme, no interference too great. The long march through the institutions began many years ago – it will not cease; it knows no bounds. If we do not wrest back control of our family lives now – right now – it will be too late. As the silent majority of the country sit back and shake their heads, tittering at the folly of the likes of Abbott and Thornbury, they miss the vital point: the conservatives are losing, the Right is losing … unless we fight for our children now, we will very soon have lost. The hand is hovering over the cradle: don’t let it rule the world.

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