Children of God | Teen Ink

Children of God

August 10, 2011
By thatotherguygirl GOLD, Sherman Oaks, California
thatotherguygirl GOLD, Sherman Oaks, California
11 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
“I will bring you flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.”
-Pablo Neruda


Children die at their mother’s milkless breasts
Crying for food.
Women wail heartbreakingly
Unable to save their loves ones.
On the other side of the world,
I check my text messages.

Guns fire and men fall
The ground is stained with blood
The death toll mounts
Hundreds dead.
Oblivious, I smile at the mirror
And fix my makeup.

Children are picked off in the night
Recruited to be child soldiers
Sentenced to a life of violence and despair
Never to see their families again.
Safe from the turmoil, I agonize over
Which heels look better with my new dress.

Girls my age are forced to leave home
And sold as sex slaves
They have nothing to call their own
Not even their precious bodies.
Meanwhile, I twist my hair into a bun
Frustrated that it won’t cooperate

Terrorists ransack villages
Firing shots among the terrified people
Raping the woman and girls, torturing the men
Forcing everyone to watch their sickening acts
Comfortable in my car, I listen to music on my iPod
As my family drives to church.

Cracked hands bleed profusely
Backs ache, legs burn, stomachs growl
As children work brutal hours
To keep their families fed.
I drop my ten dollars into the collection plate
Content to have done my part.

Entire families are rounded up and killed
For practicing their own religion
Worshippers huddle in rickety structures
As the storm rages around them
I sit in a nice warm pew with my family
Listening to the pastor talk about Christ’s sacrifice.

I’ve heard the statistics
I know what evil exists in the world
And if it occurs to me, I feel sick
For a little while.
But then I go on with my life
As if nothing is different in the world.

They’re nothing to me
A bunch of nameless, faceless numbers
I’ve never met these people who suffer so much
At the hands of their fellow men.
I call myself a daughter of God,
But I don’t go out of my way to help His children.

I’ve never felt their pain
I’ve never experienced that extreme
Of hurt, sorrow, anger, fear.
But they’re children of God like me
And our lives are all worth the same
We were all worth dying for.

So tell me, why don’t we cry
For the hardships of our brothers and sisters?
Why don’t we reach out our arms to them,
Offering everything we have to give?
Our money, our love, our lives, our Lord?
Why do we think we matter more?



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This article has 7 comments.


on Aug. 15 2011 at 8:26 pm
xximjustmexx PLATINUM, Oak Forest, Illinois
46 articles 0 photos 71 comments

Favorite Quote:
There's no god. There's no religion. There's only life, what you do with YOUR life, who YOU let affect YOUR life. Bad things happen to everyone, you just have to learn to deal with them.

You keep referring to "God" in this poem. There is no god, it's just life and what we make of it. But other than that, I really liked it.

on Aug. 15 2011 at 4:00 pm
writingchick GOLD, Huntington, Indiana
11 articles 0 photos 127 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Faith is taking another step without seeing the entire staircase."

Words can't even begin to describe how incredible this poem is. I'm speechless. I even got goosebumps. I am a very critical reader and dislike a lot of what I read but I LOVED this article and that says a lot. I've got on 3rd world missions and it is really sad when I leave there and go right back to having clean water, clothes, food and other things.

on Aug. 15 2011 at 10:35 am
sunny.all.day. GOLD, Potomac, Maryland
15 articles 0 photos 69 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."
— A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)
"writing is a struggle against silence" carlos fuentos
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

this is amazing and really touching. and it's true, too.

on Aug. 14 2011 at 11:59 pm
afflatus SILVER, Bhopal, Other
5 articles 0 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be honest. It's one of the few things in life you can control.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!but it doesn't happen like this,.....

really eye awakening...

on Aug. 14 2011 at 3:30 pm
joyfuldancer SILVER, Easton, Maryland
6 articles 0 photos 17 comments

Favorite Quote:
I'm not a perfect person, I'm a forgiven person.

This poem makes so much sense and is so revelent to Christians today.  So many of us are content to just sit back and pretend it isn't happening.

Olwyn BRONZE said...
on Aug. 14 2011 at 7:30 am
Olwyn BRONZE, Old Greenwich, Connecticut
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Favorite color of vines other than green?" "RED VINES"

This is absolutley amazing. I've thought of it that way before. Absolutley amazing.

tehefreshy1 said...
on Aug. 13 2011 at 11:43 pm
i know what you mean. i see how you feel and i too think like this when i am free of my everyday matters and alllow my mind to wander. It makes me sad but i think " GOD has good a reason for everything. Reasons we may not understand but he has a good reason for everyhting