Four Valiant Acts of Love That Make the World a Better Place
Teaching little ones to act with love and kindness is a priority for caregivers. That said, being loving isn’t always the easy thing to do.
Sometimes it takes courage to be kind and make the world a better place. Talk with your girl about these four brave, valiant acts and share a few times when you acted with love despite challenges.
Speaking Up When Something’s Wrong
In a perfect world, all people, animals, and our planet would be treated with care at all times. Unfortunately, our world is often far from perfect, and sometimes people—either on purpose or without realizing it—hurt others.
Speaking up against bullying or injustice of any kind can show those being hurt that someone cares and influence others to stand up for what’s right. It can even help those who were doing wrong to change their ways.
Even though speaking up is so powerful, a lot of people have trouble doing it. Bad behavior, like bullying or acting extremely carelessly can be shocking. When people feel shocked or surprised, it can be hard to think of what to do and that can mean people sometimes don’t speak up. Another reason people sometimes stay quiet is that it can be scary to speak up! What if the person who’s acting out turns on you next?
Talk with your girl about what she would do if she saw someone at school getting picked on or mistreated by another student. Would she feel safe enough to speak up? Why or why not? What are some things she could do to help her feel more confident taking action? Encourage her to loop in her friends for moral support so she’s not alone in speaking out and to get help from a trusted adult if the circumstances call for it.
Offering Support to Someone Who Needs It
At one point or another, everybody goes through tough times. Acting with love and assisting others when they need it most makes life a little brighter.
Acting with kindness and saying you’d like to help is the first step—and it can take courage, especially for kids who may feel powerless in times of hardship. Young people can do plenty when it comes to helping out, though. Reaching out can be as simple as saying something like, “I’ve heard you’re dealing with [name the difficult thing] and wish things weren’t so hard. Can you think of anything I could do for you that might help?” Have your girl practice asking you this so she’ll feel more confident when the need arises.
Sometimes when people are suffering, they feel overwhelmed, and it can be hard to think of ways for others to help. In those situations, your girl might offer a few different concrete tasks she could do or other ways she could be supportive. Sit with your girl and have her list her abilities that might help others. Perhaps she could help prepare a meal to be frozen and taken to a family to enjoy for dinner. Maybe she could offer to walk a neighbor’s dog, or if she’s older, mow the lawn or run some errands. Thinking of all the ways she can help others will build her confidence and can prepare her to act with love in difficult times.
Extending Friendship to Someone Who Might Feel Left Out
Feeling left out is terrible—we all know that. From being the new kid at school to looking or speaking differently than most people in your community, or pointedly being not included by others, there are many reasons why someone might feel like they don’t belong.
Finding even one friend can make all the difference in those situations, and turn what was once struggle into real sunshine. Plus, the next person your girl introduces herself to could be super fun and become a bestie for life!
We’d all like to think the young people in our lives would step up to befriend people who could use community, but doing that isn’t always so simple. She might not know what to say or worry that others would judge her for being friends with the “unpopular” kid.
Sit down with your girl and come up with a list of as many things as you can think of to talk about with someone new. From chatting about favorite movies and snacks to asking if they’d like to come over and do homework or join the next Girl Scout troop meeting, it won’t be hard to think up pages full of ideas.
As for being judged by others for being friends with the “unpopular” kid, ask her what qualities she values in a friend. Chances are, she wants to be friends with people who are kind, welcoming, and who treat people fairly. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but sometimes the people we thought we wanted to be friends with don’t really make good friends, after all.
Share the Beauty You See in the World
What’s this one doing on this list? You might brush it off, thinking there’s nothing hard or courageous about pointing out a cool bird or sharing a cute meme with friends. Spreading beauty and joy broadens everyone’s world! But depending on circumstances, sharing the beauty your girl sees in the world could be a lot more difficult for her than you think.
Kids—and, let’s face it, a lot of grown-ups, too—care a lot about their friends’ approval. For instance, what if your girl shares something she really likes with her friends and they don’t like it? Worse, what if they don’t like her anymore because she likes things they don’t?
Walk through this one with her. If your girl wasn’t so into a song or movie her friend thought was amazing, would it change the way she felt about her friend? Would she want to suddenly stop being friends because they didn’t share absolutely everything in common? Probably not! But in the reverse situation, what if she really did like the song or movie her friend introduced her to? She’d be thankful to her bestie for sharing something so cool. And if her friends are worth their salt, they’ll behave in the same way she would. Case closed.
It might also feel hard to share beauty and joy during difficult times. When something bad has happened—like a natural disaster or death—people sometimes worry they’ll be seen as inappropriate if they do anything besides being upset.
Talk to your girl about how it’s important to show that she takes hardship seriously, but that people can experience and share more than one emotion at a time. For instance, she might be sad visiting a relative in the hospital but still be happy about getting some extra time with her cousins. One emotion doesn’t cancel out the other.
It’s fully possible to share the good things she sees in the world while still expressing concern or support for those suffering. In fact, by being brave enough to point out moments of beauty, she can bring bright light into a dark situation, bringing hope to people when they need it most of all.
