"Fifteen girls are going to have their hearts broken, and he doesn't even care!" Tears streamed down Kendra's face as we stood alone in a dark room, and she was almost yelling in frustration over what she saw as selfishness and injustice.
Once a week the children at the hostel are treated to a movie night. They get out the projector in the chapel, and stay up late watching movies. The moving pictures are a treasured escape from the concrete walls of the campus and the slow pace of village life.
This week, the girls had their hearts set on watching a certain teenage chick-flick that had been loaned to us by a local missionary family. The movie was a common kids movie in the States, but it was contrary to the values the hostel leadership was trying to teach.
Kendra didn't understand how offencive the movie was to the leadership. All she could see was a young male administrator practicing his authority by overruling the girlie movie so he could watch a guy movie. Kendra knew they would watch the chick-flick in Thai, so she wouldn't be able understand the movie if the girls won. That wasn't the point. In her mind it wasn't fair. The one with the power should not ignore the voices of so many and selfishly do as he or she wishes.
I was so proud of my young justice fighter. I told her that it's good to hurt for the suffering of others, but we must not let the love for the seemingly oppressed turn into finger-pointing and passing judgment on those who hold the power. We must not let the love for some turn to bitterness for others.
It's interesting how so often my children face the same frustrations I do just on a different level. It's so easy to speak truth into their "little" issues, but usually when I do the words swing out of my mouth, slap me on the cheek and dart back in my own ear to stab my heart right where I'm struggling.
