This morning I remembered that my very first baby was due today. If that baby had been born we could potentially be celebrating the birthday of our four year old child. I love that baby, and I miss that child, but my heart no longer totally fills with sorrow when I think of that loss. I know that God has that child safely with Him, and I like to think of my grandma taking care of those babies as well. She always loved babies, and I can just imagine her up there with my babies and the babies of my family that miscarried, playing, singing, and showing them her love. When I think of my babies, I just become flooded with gratefulness for the two babies I DO have here on Earth. They bring me such incredible joy...I just adore them.
Another thought that has been passing through my mind lately is how much we have. It is so easy to get caught up in the "I needs..." Our refrigerator currently has a blocked tube that can't be fixed and it spews water onto the floor on a regular basis. This brings great frustration to me, but then I am suddenly reminded of how many people in this world don't have a fridge, don't have the food to fill it, couldn't imagine having even a linoleum floor to wipe the water up off of. All of those things right there remind me to be grateful to have a fridge at all, even if it DOES leak water onto the floor-hey, at least the floor is pretty much always clean!
In that same line of thinking, this morning I was putting laundry into the washing machine and taking another load out of the dryer. I sighed, thinking to myself, "The laundry seems never ending." Then I suddenly thought about people that have to wear the same clothes day after day, and have to wash them out in a river, or by hand. I have more clothes than I even know what to do with, and washing and drying them are a cinch! I am so lucky to have a washer and dryer, even if they are the base models. They get the job done and save me so much time! My kids, husband, and myself are always dressed as we need to be to keep us safe and warm. We are truly blessed.
The dishwasher does the same thing to me! Some days I feel like all I do is dishes all day long. I can sometimes do two to three loads a day depending on what kind of cooking and baking I have been doing. Then again, I am struck with the thought that I have all of these dishes, I can load them up and walk away and come back to clean and dry dishes just an hour later or so. I have food that I am cooking in all of those dishes. It is a blessing indeed.
Along the lines of blessings, one special project has been on my mind lately. It is Silokwethemba-We Have Hope. You can read all about it HERE. This project supports orphans and vulnerable children in Africa. It was started by my friend, Max, after a missions trip he took there years ago. It has snowballed and now supports and pays the school fees, provides shoes to, and just generally cares for hundreds of children in Zimbabwe each year. It is so easy for us to think that there is nothing we can do for the downtrodden or those that are in need, but really it is easy. There is a lot that we can do even in our own city! This project though, is dear to my heart. I think of those kids and want to help them out. Max's friend Hilary Grist recently wrote a song for these kids and this project...watch this video, it will show you what you can do, what it is like for these kids, and how you can help! I watched the video for the first time the other day. Rusty came up and asked what I was watching and I started explaining it to him. I explained that most of the kids in the pictures had no mommies and daddies, and needed someone to take care of them. One of the things he noticed was that the kids had no shoes. I asked him what we could do about that. He replied, "Well, Daddy could give them some money or something!"
I said, "What about you Rusty? Do YOU have money you could give them?"
"YES!" he replied, "My piggy money!" So, off we went. We got his piggy bank, counted out his money. I asked him how much he wanted to give. He replied, "Forty thousand dollars." I wish little man, I wish! We counted out some money and then went online and donated that amount. My heart was happy to see my little man understanding that we can help others. Even now when you ask him what his money went for he says, "to buy the kids shoes!"
If my little man can buy some shoes and help out, can't we all help out? Watch the video, I dare you. It will touch your heart, it will fill you with images of little kids in whose lives one small donation can make a huge gift. YOU CAN HELP. We are fortunate, we are blessed. This month I made a goal not to buy myself any Starbucks. Every time I am tempted, I stop and think of these kids. At the end of the month I would like to donate the amount I would have spent on lattes to those kids...I think it will be money well spent. What could you cut back on to help? Check out the video...see what you can do!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting, your words mean a lot to me!