Three Things About Apathy

Apathy is:

*the absence of passion

*void of emotion

*unconcerned

*uncaring

*immovable

*inactive

Apathy tells us:

*it doesn't matter

*someone else will do it

*it's not your concern

*out of sight, out of mind

*you can't help

Apathy allows:

*22,000 children under the age of 5 to die from preventable causes

*people to go uncared for, unloved, and unseen

*children to be orphans

*mothers to watch their babies suffer, unable to do anything to help them

*darkness to take hold

Will you allow apathy towards those in poverty to continue?  Or will you fight back?  Will you ignite a passion for those less fortunate?  Or will we continue to sit in our air conditioned homes, watching our cable TV, while playing on our smart phones and drinking our gourmet coffee while poverty takes the hopes and the dreams and the lives of children all over the world.  Have you thought about that?  We are watching television while children are dying.  How can we rest?  What can we do?  For $38 a month you can help one of these children.  For $38 a month you can provide them with medical care, schooling, food, hygiene training.  You can break the cycle of poverty for their family.  $38 a month!  I bet you waste that easily...I know we do.  What is it worth to save someone's life?  What would you give up?  Will you sponsor a child? 

God's Economy

I went to my grandmother's house today for the first time since she moved to a nursing home.  It was so weird to pull up there and know she wasn't there.  As soon as I rounded the curve and saw her mailbox I got a little choked up.  As I walked up to the front door, tears stung my eyes...it was locked.  If she was there, it would have been open, and I would be able to see her through the screen, because she would be waiting for me.  We were looking through some of her things, reminiscing, and it was such an odd feeling.  These were her things, her jewelry, her pictures, her decorations...things she loved and chose for herself.  And now they sit. It reminded me of when my other grandmother was sick.  She was going to move in with us, so we had a garage sale to sell a lot of her stuff.  She made several hundred dollars.  I remember the sadness in her eyes as she counted up the total at the end of the sale.  "This is all my life's belongings are worth?" she said.  It was a sad realization, and one that stuck with me...one I remembered again today.

We spend so much time and money on "stuff." We work crazy hours...hours spent away from our family...to buy stuff.  And then we work more to pay for the insurance to protect our stuff.  And then we get bigger stuff.  It consumes so much of our life...our time, our energy.  But in the end that stuff is either going to the dump, or getting sold off in a garage sale.  Sure, some things may be handed down to family...but most of it is trash or someone else's second hand treasure.  It's meaningless.

In our culture, we value hard work and striving to be the best.  I value those things too, but lately, I feel like we're all being duped.  We're spending our lives climbing ladders and accumulating stuff.  For what?  Has the American Dream been a smoke screen all along to cause us to waste our lives in meaningless pursuits?  It's not making us happy.  It's not making us healthy.  It's making us slaves...slaves to our stuff.

September is Blog Month for Compassion.  I love to use my little piece of cyber space to hopefully promote a little change.  Our first assignment for blog month is to write what we would say to our childhood self.  I've been thinking long and hard about it this week.  What is the one thing I would say to my childhood self---or to my children---or to my sponsored child?  If they were going to hear one thing, what would I want it to be?  After today, I think it would be this:

The only things that will truly last are the things you do for Eternity's sake.

Everything else is temporary and meaningless...here today and gone tomorrow.  What matters is not what you deposit in your bank account but what you deposit into the hearts of others.  Spend yourself in loving others.  Wear yourself out loving others.  Love God with all you have.  Expend every ounce of energy loving your family and those around you.  I know you have to work; we all have to eat, and hard work is a good thing.  But work as if you're working for the Lord.  Moms, love on your children like their very souls depend on it.  Make your laundry and the dishes a sacrifice of love for them.  Show love, live grace, forgive radically, love people.  Everything else is just a distraction.  Then you will be rich...not just in this life, but for all of eternity.  Work with unwavering focus at loving people.  The house, the cars, television, smart phones---all secondary.  They should all be tools that you use to love people better.  It's okay to have these things, as long as they are dedicated to the purpose of loving people.  Then, you will get to the end of your life, and the stuff won't matter, because you will be leaving a legacy of love and changed hearts, and healing and grace...which is so much more valuable than a few hundred dollars worth of stuff.

If this is resonating with you at all, can I encourage you to do one small thing to shift your focus from "stuff" to "people?"  Sponsor a child through Compassion.  What I love about this, is not only do you send money that pays for a child's food, schooling, medication, and other necessities, you write letters and build relationships with these children.  You encourage them to do well in school, to take care of themselves, to come to a personal relationship with Christ.  It is amazing what so few American dollars can do for these precious children in poverty.  Not only will you be affecting eternity for the child that you sponsor, but you and your family will be changed as well.  That's God's economy.  You invest a little and he pays outrageous dividends.  I never thought I could love a child half way across the world that I've never met.  But I do.  I love him as part of our own family.  He is constantly in my thoughts and prayers. Sponsoring one child is not going to change the world...but it can change one child's world.  And in so doing, you'll be surprised how it will change yours too.  

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

Matthew 16:24-26

Compassion Homeschool

A couple of years ago our family decided that we would sponsor a child through Compassion International.  There are so many things that I LOVE about this organization.  The more I learned about their commitment to helping children in poverty---not just by providing them a meal or two, but by really changing their lives, the more hooked I became.

We sponsor a little boy in Rwanda.  We do many thing to try to teach our children about helping others, but this sponsorship is so meaningful, because it is personal to them.  They know our child by name.  They know about his family.  We read letters from him, as well as from his pastor and his mother.  We know what he likes to eat and that he wants to be a pastor when he grows up.  When we send him money for his birthday, he doesn't buy toys...he buys goats, to help his family.  We know that he has chores...like hauling water for the family.  It has been eye opening and educational for us and for our kids.  We hope we are making half the impact on him that he is making on us.  

By American standards, we don't make a lot of money.  We are a family of 5 living on one teacher's salary.  God has been so gracious and generous to always provide for all of our needs.  So, even though money is tight around here, how could we not extend that same grace and generosity to someone else?  If you have ever considered sponsoring a child, my advice is DO IT.  You will never regret it.  Whatever you have to give up in order to afford it is trivial in comparison to what you will gain.  

So that's my plug for sponsoring a child through Compassion.  The other reason I'm writing this blog is because I have lots of Homeschooling friends, and I just found the coolest thing on Compassion's web-site.  They have lesson plans especially for homeschool families!  I am so excited to start these with my kids.  Teaching my children compassion for the poor/less fortunate is a constant battle.  Where we live we are surrounded by so much...they think they have it bad because we won't buy them a WiiU AND an Xbox...they just can't comprehend what real poverty looks like.  So, I am really excited to do these lessons with my kids.  I haven't started them yet, but they look great.  You know what would be really cool is to do these lessons and sponsor a child as a part of your home school.  ;-)

Help a Child

It's About Giving

Without a doubt, Christmas is the best time of year.  If you ask my kids, they will tell you it is the best time of year because of the gifts.  Now, if Mark raised his eyebrows or if I crinkled my forehead, they may remember to dutifully say it's the best time of year because it is when we celebrate Jesus' birth.  But, I know they really love the gifts.  And that's okay.  Who doesn't enjoy getting gifts...a surprise under the tree...the anticipation for days and days of what Santa will bring.  I love that too.  I think you have to know how good it feels to get a much needed or wanted gift before you can fully understand the joy of giving a much needed and wanted gift. 

But, what I really love about this time of year is the giving.  And not just the giving of gifts, but the giving of time and resources as well.  I love how people go out of their way to decorate their yards...all to delight the children, and neighbors and anyone else that happens to drive down the street.  I love how people shop for just the right gift to make someone else happy.  I love how we are all out shopping, trying to find the gift that will make the recipient feel loved and special.  We give gifts of gratitude to teachers, postal workers, co-workers and neighbors.  What makes this time of year special, is that we all spend so much time thinking about how to make the holidays special for someone else.  What if we always spent that much time trying to make things special for other people?

It's about giving...and that is why we have such fond memories and special attachment to this time of year.

We're never more Christ-like than when we're giving. The very purpose of His entire life, was to ultimately, give it away.  He stored up nothing for himself in this life--no home, no riches, no children, nothing.  He gave it all up to fulfill his purpose and give us eternal life. 

When we give, we are reflecting the heart of God.  But, where we are happy to give out of our excess---what is left over after we have everything we want and need---God gives us his all, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son..." (John 3:16).  We are happy to give if we feel like the recipient deserves it, God gave to us even when we don't deserve it:  "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)  Fortunately for us, he didn't wait for us to get our lives together.  God gives good and perfect gifts all the time.  And as Christ followers, we should try to emulate him, at all times of the year.

Are you looking for a good litmus test of where you are in your walk with God?  How giving are you?  When we are where we should be with God, we give...without counting the cost.  When we fully understand who is backing us, and who has given us everything we have, we can't help but be cheerful...hilarious...givers.  We can give without fear, because we know that we can't out-give God.  We know that the more we give...of our money, our time, ourselves, the more God fills us back up.
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."

So, this Christmas, my hope for you is that you do find that perfect gift for those special people in your life.  I hope their eyes light up on Christmas morning; I hope your kids squeal with delight and fully enjoy the magic of Christmas.  And I hope that they understand that the magic of Christmas is giving.

But, I also hope that you remember, while your children are dreaming of sugarplums and video games, somewhere there is a mother crying out to God for someone to help her children before they starve.  While you are covering your house in enough lights to make Clark Griswold proud, there is a father somewhere hoping that he can figure out how he's going to afford to send his children to school and buy them clothes.  While we are fretting about the 3 or 4 holiday pounds we're going to gain, there is a child that can't sleep because they're hungry, really hungry.

And now, so that I don't completely ruin your holiday, I'm going to tell you what you can do about it.  Because, those prayers that they're praying??  We're the answer to them.  God has blessed US.  So, this Christmas, sit down with your family and take a little time to browse through the Compassion catalog.  Maybe buy a few less Christmas cookies and spend that money on something that can change the life of someone living in poverty.  There are enough options in this catalog that families with all different budgets can help.  Teach your children how good it feels to give.  #itsAboutGiving

Make this the Merriest Christmas yet!!

Adventures in the Alphabet

Ella and I have been working on learning to read.  We are making an alphabet book with a page for each letter.  Here are some of the interesting things she has drawn for each page:

Letter B:  a demon fish (for those of you without big brothers, this is half fish/half man with scary teeth)
Me:  "Ella, demon fish doesn't start with B."  (Things only parents get to say, right?)
Ella:  "Yes it does, buh, buh, demon fish.  Plus, I really like to draw scary fish."

Letter C: a bunny
Me:  "What is this?"
Ella: "A bunny."
Me: "Bunny doesn't start with C."
Ella: "Oh fine, it's a cat."

Letter D: a lion
Ella:  "Do you like my lion?"
Me:  "Yes, but lion doesn't start with D." (are you noticing a pattern here?)
Ella:  "Um, there's a DUCK jumping OVER the lion."
Of course there is, what was I thinking?

The Newest Member of Our Family

Meet Habiyamuremye Adrien, the child our family is sponsoring.  He is 5 years old and lives with his parents in Rwanda.  We had compassion Sunday at church a few weeks ago, and Mark and I both felt strongly that this was something we needed to do.  For a very small monthly contribution, this child will have access to food, education, and other services that help his family.  For less than my family spends on hamburgers each month, we could make a big difference in this child's life.  We let Aidan pick out which child we would sponsor.  He picked Habiyamuremye because he was the only one that didn't have shoes.  He really wants to buy him some shoes.  (It's possible that he HAS shoes, but just wasn't wearing them in this photo).  It has been such a blessing for our family to be able to help.  I love hearing Aidan pray for "Habi."  I hope it means as much to Habiyamuremye as it does to us.  We will be sending him pictures and letters soon.  I would love to meet him someday, and Compassion will allow you to travel to your child's home to meet them, but I'm not counting on us ever being able to make that trip.  Please join our family in praying for this little boy, or go to Compassion's web site to sponsor a child of your own.