“An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” Proverbs 18:15
Who doesn’t want to make an impact or change the world for the better? Well, I’ll fill you in on a little secret I’ve discovered: The first step in making a difference for the cause you’re passionate about is education. When developing my Unbreakable campaign, I learned the importance of becoming fully educated on the subject at hand. When sharing your passions or creating a platform, you have to start with educating yourself and educating others.
Seek to understand. When reading Proverbs 18, the verse above really stood out to me. In order to truly make a difference or fight for an injustice, you have to understand why it matters. Discover why it matters to those around you and why it matters to you. You have to understand the gravity of the situation. When you start to dig into this and start educating yourself on a topic or an injustice, no matter what it is, it can truly change your heart and the heart of others.
Education creates empathy. In our world today, we have so much access to the media. It’s so pervasive that we can become immune to hearing about people who are suffering. It’s easier to stay in our own lane and stay nestled in our own comfortable world, than to take a step in another person’s shoes. It’s easier to ignore the issues than dive right in to take action. That’s why I share startling statistics when speaking on what I believe to be one of the greatest evils of today, human trafficking. It’s only then that you see other people’s eyes tear up at the reality of this evil. When I started seeking out knowledge and educating myself on this evil, that is when I was moved to take action. It’s when I was moved to challenge and inspire others to take action, too. When we seek to understand instead of ignore, it ignites our hearts to be a part of the rescue team.
Education creates urgency. I think you can hear about an issue, an injustice, or someone being mistreated and think it’s sad or not a good thing. It’s easier to quickly dismiss it and get back to your normal life. It’s only when I started talking face to face with women who were rescued out of human trafficking, heard their stories, and understood how prevalent this issue is for women and children all around the world that I felt a sense of urgency to take action. I thought to myself, if I could help save even ONE person from going through this, I would do anything to help. Education created an urgency in me that never would have existed if I hadn’t leaned in to learn more. Can you imagine what kind of difference we could make to abolish the human trafficking industry if we all decided to act TODAY?!
Education creates change. I often say that knowledge is power. If that’s true, then knowledge makes waves. Knowledge or educating yourself literally empowers you to go out and tell the world. It empowers you to take that one next step towards making a difference. I’d encourage you to figure out what stirs your heart. Figure out that injustice for which you are willing to suffer. Decide to educate yourself on it, and when you do, you’ll be moved to action. For some of you it may be just speaking to others openly about it. For others it might be starting that foundation or organization. Whatever it may be, YOU can be the change by educating yourself, inspiring others to come along with you, and taking that next step towards helping someone else.
I believe in you, friend! Now let’s go change the world together!
