Choose Love Has Become a Movement

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THE STORY BEHIND THE MOVEMENT

“The sacred soil of sorrow is rich with nutrients to grow our souls. We can use it to bury ourselves in our grief or allow the cracking open of our heart to lift us toward the light. A broken-open heart increases our capacity to love fully and authentically. No more pretending, masking, protecting, and accommodating. When we protect ourselves so we won’t feel pain, that protection becomes like armor that imprisons the softness of the heart.”
— Robyn DeLong

There are two kinds of people (kids).

1. Good people (kids);
2. Good people (kids) in pain.
   — Scarlett Lewis, Mother of murdered son Jesse Lewis.

Choose Love Movement™ was inspired by 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, his final acts of love, and his mother’s path of forgiveness after Jesse was killed in a mass school shooting.

After hearing about The Choose Love Movement™, I decided to take a detour from our typical Post Parenting articles. If you have been a Post Institute follower for any length of time, you will recognize Bryan Post‘s iconic signature line, Choose Love, now over 20 years old. Learning that it has grown into a movement, I thought you might be inspired to know the story. As a parent, you have the right to know.

The Choose Love Movement™ teaches children and adults around the world how to change an angry thought to a loving one and live a life filled with “Courage + Gratitude + Forgiveness + Compassion-in-Action.” A six-year-old-victim, Jesse of Sandy Hook Elementary, was the heroic 1st grader who died trying to save his classmates. His mother began the long journey to help other kids, parents, and educators. 

I learned about this from a fellow writer-author Robyn DeLong who included this information in her soon to be published book Tilling the Sacred Soil of Sorrow…Tools for Living Joyfully from a Broken-Open Heart.

Sometimes we just need a little inspiration to give us some perspective. Often, our problems are dwarfed by others, and we begin to take on a new appreciation, gratitude for what we do have. This changes everything¹. Robyn has given this gift to many of us. One fateful day she got a call telling her that her thirty-six-year-old son had been killed in a tragic vehicle accident.

She used this event to spark a journey to help others who have lost a loved one. Sad as this is, it can be the fertile ground for life-changing transformation. Robyn chose this as her new life path.

The following excerpt is from Robyn’s soon to be published book, Tilling the Sacred Soil of Sorrow…Tools for Living Joyfully from a Broken-Open Heart.

“Another person who inspires me with her courage and vision is Scarlett Lewis. Her six-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was murdered in his first-grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, alongside 19 of his classmates and six educators in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

Shortly after the tragedy, Scarlett found out that Jesse used his final moments to save six of his classmates heroically. When the shooter stopped to reload, Jesse yelled to his classmates to run while he stayed by his teacher’s side in a real act of courage and love.

Before Jesse’s funeral, Scarlett found a message he wrote on their kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died, “Norturting Helinn Love” (Nurturing, Healing Love). These words are not in the vernacular of a six-year-old and were phonetically spelled because Jesse was in first grade and just learning to write.

However, these words are found in any definition of compassion across all cultures. Love is as necessary to our healthy existence as food and water, and love is a universal need that connects all humanity.

Scarlett realized the solution is simple. If we infuse our classrooms with love and teach children how to give and receive love, they won’t want to harm one another and could add to a more peaceful and loving world.

Using Jesse’s example of courage, Scarlett decided to become part of the solution to the violence we are experiencing today and started a worldwide movement, Choose Love. Following the tragedy, Scarlett asked herself two questions: How could something like this happen? What can be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

After researching the shooter’s background, Scarlett realized this violent act started with an angry thought in the young man’s head responsible for the mass shooting.

She also understood that an angry thought could be changed. Scarlett set out to get Jesse’s message into classrooms with the understanding that if the shooter knew how to give and receive “nurturing healing love,” that the tragedy would never have happened.

Scarlett started the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement™ to foster the understanding that with the right tools, we can educate and encourage individuals to choose loving thoughts over angry thoughts.”

Written by Robyn DeLong in her forthcoming book Tilling the Sacred Soil of Sorrow…Tools for Living Joyfully from a Broken-Open Heart.

—Choose Love

To learn more, visit The Choose Love Movement™ here.

¹“We think that people are grateful because they are happy. But is this true? Look closely, and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. When we are thankful for whatever is given to us, no matter how difficult, no matter how uninvited it may be, the thankfulness itself makes us happy.” — Brother David Steindl-Rast

Note: This article was written for parents and professionals with challenging adopted, foster, and diagnosed children in their care. It is also applicable as a parenting model for all parents. It was first published in The Post Institute Post Parenting Toolbox Series.

To learn more about Bryan Post and The Post Institute’s Love Based Family-Centered approach to parenting challenging adopted, foster and diagnosed children, visit The Post Institute. Bryan’s books From Fear to Love and The Great Behavior Breakdown have become classics for understanding and parenting children with trauma histories.

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