An excerpt from...
The Earth is the Lord’s: Handle with Care
Growing Up Aware
by Linda Ridley
I grew up in a home (long before the green movement was trendy) where the word “conservation” was never spoken, but always practiced. We learned that to wash hands under running water was wasteful; we rarely took long, leisurely showers. Water was precious, something to conserve.
My dad rigged up an extra tub to hold washing machine rinse water so my mom could re-use the relatively clean water to rinse the next load. When the weather was extra dry, we saved that water still again, and hauled it in buckets to water the trees and bushes surrounding the house. This was long before the concept of using “grey” water to irrigate city lawns.
We lived in a small town with no garbage pick-up, and always sorted the trash as we used things. Some went into the glass barrel, others in the metal barrel and several times a year, Dad hauled these things to a local junkyard which was the only place that did recycling back then. Milk and soda came in re-usable glass bottles. Very little came in throw-away plastic containers.
To drop litter on the ground was unthinkable. If we saw others litter, we were encouraged to pick it up ourselves.
My husband grew up in a home where cleanliness in the home and yard were also a priority. Trash was never allowed to accumulate and mar the environment. Now, as parents ourselves, we feel is is important to instill in our children a deep reverence for the earth which God created for us and gave us charge of. We try to practice as well as preach environmentalism to our children. We practice the obvious forms: the children help us to save and recycle clear glass, aluminum and newspapers. It is their job to smash pop cans and they share the profit from the local recycling center. They know that we want to recycle plastic, but cannot find a local recycler, so instead, we try not to buy products in plastic.
We save all of our garbage, leaves, clipping and twigs and put them on a compost pile to put nutrients into our garden. The children take turns taking the garbage to the compost pile after every meal.
Our children, too, have learned to respect the land...I want my children to see reality through God’s eyes and not men’s. .Reality is this: that God made the world with certain controls and limitations. If we don’t honor these, we suffer. I hope we are raising children—God’s children—who will not only practice environmental care in their own lives, but also help fight the waste and greed that can destroy the world.
HOW TO RAISE AN ENVIRONMENTALLY-RESPONSIBLE CHILD:
- Be one. Never preach what you don’t practice.
- Ask for God’s guidance to show you how you are damaging His creation and how to better care for it.
- Make it meaningful to the children. Let them smash the cans, bundle the paper, go along to the recycling center and share in the profits.
- Discuss landfills with your children, and how much that could be recycled goes there instead. Go to one on a family or class field trip.
- Pray with your children for God to protect and restore the earth until the day of His return.
(Author Linda Ridley, a former high school teacher, is a homemaker and mother of four children living in northwest Ohio.
JUST FOR KIDS
No matter how old you are, you can help take care of the earth. Here are 10 things you can do. How many more can you think of:
- Recycle everything that can be recycled. What are some things you can recycle?
- Turn off the light when you leave a room–unless, of course, your sister is still sitting in there!
- Plant something. God created plants and people for each other. People breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide to live and produce fresh, clean oxygen. What is your favorite plant?
See the book for drawings and the rest of the tips for kids.
