Teach

Teach: teach the children,
how to love,
how to live,
how to be happy.
Let them shine and be themselves.
And teach them to take pride in themselves.
Help them to succeed and excel,
and above all else… love themselves.
Teach: teach the teen-agers,
to be great for themselves,
to be a great leader for the future generations,
as they are the only ones children and teen-agers of the future have to rely on,
to count on.
Teach them respect.
To have it and to give it.
Elders may expect too much sometimes,
but they have the right to expect something.
Maybe a little humanity,
maybe a little love,
maybe a little respect in return.
What’s wrong with that?
That had to respect others too once,
and learned the secret of respect for themselves along the way.
Teach: teach the adults,
to let a child learn,
to let a teen-ager go,
to let a grown man or woman live their own life,
to let a day go by without bickering,
arguing,
expectations,
especially those too high,
to love a child,
small or grown,
for everything,
mistakes and all,
bad days and good,
bad habits,
addictions,
unexpected pregnancies,
dying from disease,
or living off the world,
living on the edge.
Teach them the world is not against them,
not even the young adults of the world.
As a matter of fact teach them how loved and admired they truly are.
Teach them to appreciate, being able to care for someone who actually cares about them,
and someone caring about them that they actually care about.
Last of all, but certainly not least.
Teach: for God’s sake (and I do mean for God)…
teach the world to get along,
to love one another,
to be a team,
a family,
a loving sector for the human animals to survive in.
Teach them to feed off of love and give up the hatred,
the greed,
the sick abuse going on in the world,
to quit being so morbid.
If we’re going to survive,
we need to learn to live together,
in peace.
If we’re all going to live together in this world,
we need to give a little love.
Teach: teach the world of God.
Teach the world of love.
Just teach the world.

Written by Gail Brookshire
(published in Flight magazine # 3, Spring of ’94, pages 105-107)
(by the grace of God)
This was also used by a woman of some National Woman’s group to open all of her speeches that year, but I could never find out who, other than her name was Gail also. My friends told me in excitement of hearing her read it and saying she wish she could meet me! God used me!