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This week, I heard some lower school students singing a song. They sang, “In a world full of hate, be the light.” It is a lyric that always catches my voice while singing along and brings stinging tears. This week, it hits even harder. Sometimes, this world feels like a mess, and I hope and pray that my kid’s light will not dim. Knowing what and how much to share with them is a regular worry of mine.

Byran and I have always aired on the side of honest answers with minimal details when discussing difficult news. We answer their questions and provide little extra detail from what they are asking. We try to center the conversation around feelings, and when someone or a group of people act “unkind,” we name it. We talk about why a person or a group of people might be angry or hurt. We talk about the scary parts. We talk about what we can do to help or help to make sure that doesn’t happen in our community. We typically keep the news off when they are awake, choosing newspaper articles where we have greater control over how the information is shared with them. Sometimes, when really horrible things are happenign in the news, I pray that no one talks about it at school because I honestly dread knowing that I am about to tint their rose-colored glasses, and gosh, I want to keep them protected for as long as possible.

When I don’t know what to say, sometimes because the content is too difficult for me to process even as an adult, and sometimes because I don’t know enough about the conflict, I turn to experts for help. This week, I turned to HealthyChildren.org and planned to search “helping your children deal with global conflict” or “understanding war.” They beat me to it and didn’t even require a search. This topic was the banner article. Their advice was to ask the child what they already know, not to dismiss their fears, limit exposure, and not to worry about not knowing the perfect thing to say. 

This weekend, I plan to hug my babies a little tighter, count my blessings a little louder, and sing on repeat, “in a world full of hate, be the light” to my children.