It Takes A Village: But Why

So there is an old African Proverb "It Takes A Whole Village To Raise a Child" today's society dictates otherwise. Our society today is very inward and self-centered, there are horrible role models all around our children and families and we are constantly bombarded with media telling us and our children what we should wear, like, drive, play with, eat and everything else you could imagine, and very rarely are any of the media messages good. Then there are the people in our families, in our friend networks, in our neighborhoods that aren't exactly the best examples of morals and values that we have to deal with as well.

I am a wife and mother of two doing the best I can to raise my children with good values and morals with Jesus at the center. It is a struggle, Jesus was never really a big part of my life let alone the center of it - so this is a new world for me that I'm trying to learn myself and teach my children. We teach them right from wrong and what the difference between the two are. We teach the importance of prayer not only for ourselves but to pray for others and we pray together daily. We listen to Christian music in the car and in the house, watch mostly cartoons when the kids are awake trying to do our best to limit the number of bad messages they are even exposed to. For the most part I think we are doing ok but of course there is always room for improvement. But there is one problem, the minute we walk out that door to go to Target, go to a playdate, or interact with our friends or the friends of our children we are at risk for all of that being undone because not everyone has the same values and morals as we do.

In comes the need for "The Village." I was talking with a very good friend of mine also a wife and mother of two just about random things that my daughter has been learning and going through. We often share stories of our children since they are similar in age, we share advice, product reviews, company reviews, we share in each other's good times and bad times, we pray for one another and each others friends and families. So in one of our random conversations we were discussing the topic of "It Takes a Village" and just how important that is, especially when you are trying to raise your children against the norm of society. And just like that our village was born. Two different people, from two different areas of the country - brought together in the Triangle here in NC. Both married with children with a lot of the same views, thought processes and goals for our families, moving forward as a support system or a Village for each other and each other's families.