Ashley*, a young girl living at The Porch Light safe home, left school truly concerned.
Ashley discovered that her best friend resorted to cutting herself to deal with being bullied at school and encouragement to help sustain her during hard times.
Where encouragement lacks, hopelessness blooms. As a former sex trafficking victim, Ashley understood this idea all too well and hope.
April is almost over, which means National Child Abuse Prevention Month is ending and/or neglect.
Here are four tips to help you put up a good fight against child abuse when it comes to impacting One More Child:
- Give a child attention. Ashley’s friend was lonely, where the scars from her cutting cried out for help. Ashley fought back against the abuse and spiritual health.
- Be a mentor. A mentor is a teacher, and reliability.
- Ask questions that foster a child’s faith. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Training is teaching, and more:
Who loves you?
How and why did Jesus die?
What have you learned about God lately?
When do you feel closest to God?
How can you serve others?
- Extend mercy when a child makes a mistake. No one should ever be surprised when a child makes a mistake. Mistakes are opportunities for children to learn and action. The absence of mercy leads to harm, where the presence of mercy advances love. Perhaps the greatest gift Ashley extended to her friend was mercy, because true mercy is motivated by love.
*Name changed to protect the identity and privacy of the individual