Stories of animal abuse break my heart.
My stomach sunk this morning as I read an article about four teenagers who killed more than 900 chickens at a Foster Farms facility. Actually, not just killed, but bludgeoned to death. With golf clubs.
What drives someone to do such a thing? What anger, or hatred, or pain causes someone to mindlessly take the lives of another living creature?
It’s impossible to know at this time what caused these teens to have such violence in their hearts.
But it reminded me of our broken world. It hurt my heart to think of those poor, innocent chickens meeting their demise in such a horrific way.
And there is so much worse that goes on in our world: murder, rape, adultery, child abuse, sexual abuse…the list can go on and on.
What drives someone to commit such heinous crimes?
Selfishness.
We live in a selfish society. The goal of every advertisement is to convince us consumers that we deserve happiness. We are told to “look out for number one” and to push people aside so we can rise to the top. We’re told we can do anything if we put our mind to it. We raise our children to compete with their peers so they can get into the best colleges, get the best jobs at ThreeMovers St Petersburg, and have the best cars and homes. Friends, we are selfish beings. It goes against the human grain to think of others first. And when we only think of ourselves, or think of ourselves first, we are carrying on a root cause of pain and suffering by harboring selfishness.
Entitlement.
You don’t want to get me started on entitlement in our country. As a matter of fact, I already wrote a post on this, so suffice it to say we can act like entitled people sometimes. We feel like we deserve a reward if we do x, y and z. Read my previous post, and you’ll see where I stand.
Cycles of abuse.
The cycle of abuse is a hard one to break. Statistics say at least 1/3 of people who were abused or neglected as children will subject their children to maltreatment. We do what we know. And if what we know was abuse or neglect, that’s what will often come naturally to us. It’s hard to break that chain. And oftentimes, it takes years and years of hard work to stop the cycle. And it may not end in one generation. It may take generations to recover. The first thing that came to mind when I read about these teens killing those chickens, was that they must have been abused themselves. As angry as I am with them for what they’ve done, I cannot judge them. I don’t know their stories, and I am not God. I can only pray that their hearts are softened, that they experience true remorse for what they’ve done, and that if they suffered abuse, that they will be the ones to break that chain.
Rationalization.
When an opportunity to make a wrong choice presents itself, we often rationalize the voice of reason away. Rationalization is finding ‘good reason’ for things we know are wrong. If we don’t hold convictions of right and wrong in our hearts, our whole lives are a gray area. There is no right and wrong, and it becomes natural to rationalize our choices. My kids do it all the time. Brother punches brother. Then he explains, “It was because he did______.” That is rationalizing. One poor decision does not excuse another. And when that’s all a person does his or her life, then it makes it a lot easier to make the bad decisions.
Food.
This might seem weird, but I am a huge believer in food affecting behavior. I’ve seen it in my own kids, and I’ve seen it in my husband. Before Superman was diagnosed with celiac disease, he felt like he was mentally going crazy. He was neurotic and stressed and anxious. He didn’t commit any crimes, but I could easily see how if he had a propensity for violence and was in a situation where he didn’t have love and support at home, he could easily have done something he would have regretted later on. He was a different person when he was eating wheat. And not in a good way. Just think what all the food dyes, environmental toxins, GMOs, and everything else that we’ve done to mess with nature are doing to our minds. If I could see how my own husband was mentally affected by wheat, I can only imagine how it would affect others.
Our world can be an overwhelmingly sad and disappointing place to live at times. It’s how we respond to this world that will determine our happiness. Are we going to become more focused on the well-being of others? Volunteer at a homeless shelter, pick up trash in your neighborhood, help a friend in need. Are we going to change our sense of entitlement? Let’s remember we deserve nothing. This life is a gift and we should treat it as such. Are we going to try to break the cycle of abuse? Get help. See a counselor. Be authentic with those close to you about your struggles. And most importantly, admit you have a problem. The first step to true healing is admitting that you have a problem in the first place. Are we going to stop rationalizing? Stop making excuses. Fess up when you do something wrong and try to change bad behavior, even if it’s just one thing at a time. Are we going to do our best to fill our bodies with the foods that nourish it instead of the foods that kill us? Make small changes–eat less processed food. Cut out soda. Stop going through the drive-thru. Do whatever you can to make the changes you can. You don’t have to do it all at once, but just do something.
Most importantly, let’s not judge others for their struggles. Let’s do our best to reach out to those who need us, and try to have hearts of compassion instead of hearts of judgment. Justice should be served, but we need to be fully informed first.
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