On Saturday, Craig Kielburger tweeted: Back to school spending averages $68 million; that’s around $600 per family. Consider making ethical purchases.

That idealistic statement has impact when we understand that fifteen years ago, twelve-year-old Craig decided that he wanted to do what he could to stop child labor, and he now leads Free the Children, a not-for-profit that helps kids help other kids around the world. Huge amounts of help.

I read it and thought, “We don’t have to consider our choices. But we could.”

We don’t have to think about the impact of our purchases, but we could. We don’t have to think about why we snack, but we could. We don’t have to spend 7 minutes a day reading the Bible, but we could. We don’t have to take a day in seven. We don’t have to go to bed an hour earlier to get the rest we need or get up an hour earlier to get the quiet we need. But we could.

We don’t need to help Diana Scimone raise funds for her to fight child trafficking by teaching kids what it is. We don’t need to read Don Miller’s book about writing a better story with our lives. We don’t need to start walking and talking for 20 minutes a day with our spouse. We don’t need to read Psalm 70 over and over and over so that it becomes part of our heart so that when we are feeling completely overwhelmed we have some words to use to cry out. We don’t need to do jumping jacks during the commercial breaks or write real thank you notes on paper or ask God why and listen for an answer. We don’t need to do any of the things that in the tiniest way make our lives more intentional.

But we could.

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