As a child, she was kidnapped for 9 months and 20 years later she sends a message to parents all over the world
Unfortunately, daily we receive terrible news from around the world!
Tremendous events that we would not wish to happen to even to our worst enemy and that leave us even more dismayed and horrified by our inability to make sense of it.
Why did it happen, one wonders, without finding an explanation.
Elizabeth Smart, however, seems to have found it. Kidnapped and raped for nine months, she was able to find the strength to move forward, overcoming the horror she had experienced.
And now she invites parents around the world to pay close attention to three important aspects of their relationship with their children.
Salt Lake City, USA. It is 2002, and Elizabeth is only 14 years old when one night someone comes into her bedroom and while threatening her with a knife, drags her away. Her family will only see her again more than nine months later.
However, someone had witnessed - powerless to do anything - what had happened at the scene of the crime. Namely, Elizabeth's little sister, Mary Katherine, who pretended to be asleep, and who could later provide a description of the perpetrator of the crime.
So it was easy to identify the kidnapper, a certain Brian David Mitchell, a man who had previously done some work on the Smart family property.
Mitchell took Elizabeth to the mountains, where he lived on a campsite with his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee. There, for nine months, the two abused the girl with all kinds of violence. But Elizabeth managed to grit her teeth, stay strong, and miraculously survive.
In fact, her case soon became a national news story, and all of America was put on high alert and engaged in the search for the young girl. Until finally, one day, a motorcyclist recognized Mitchell which allowed the police to find and arrest him and his wife -- and save Elizabeth.
It has been 16 years --- and today Elizabeth is happily married, the mother of two beautiful children, and works as a child safety advocate. In fact, it is in this regard that she wants to offer important advice to all parents, in light of her own terrible experience:
- 1. Make sure your child understands that he or she is loved unconditionally, explaining the meaning of the term "unconditionally";
- 2. Explain to your child that no one has the right to frighten, hurt or use violence on him or her in any way and for any reason whatsoever, regardless of who that person may be that is hurting him or her.
- 3. Tell your child that they need to report to their parents any information about any incidents of violence, experienced or threatened.
This may seem to be obvious advice, but it is not at all. Why? Because often it is the indifference and the absence of the parents that open the doors to potentially dangerous situations!
