Just the other day I was having my eight year old pick up some laundry left on the bathroom floor by his younger siblings. He says very seriously almost in protest, "I will carry their clothes but I am not carrying their underwear". I replied, "You will carry the underwear. Actually, I just picked up some of your underwear yesterday when I was helping with your room." "YEAH!", he answered. "You're a mom!"
And then there was this one, during the school year on a particular day that everyone seemed a little off. Surprisingly my usually more agreeable child was not focusing on his work and was distracting everyone else. I called him to the side, looked at him and said "You should desire to be obedient. You should want to listen to your mother". Looking at me seriously and with no hesitation he said, "The only thing I desire is to be a man with mad abs". Really I just stared at him for a moment taking in what he just said and then told him to go back to his seat. I had no words.
And just yesterday this was how a conversation went with one of my children. In a box of clothes that were passed on to the kids there was a wrestling uniform. You know the stretchy one piece things? My eight year old wants to wear it everyday since he found it among the clothes. So he was asking to go outside in the uniform. I had told him not right now. And he says, "Can I if I wear underwear"?
Those moments are precious to me. Moments when God is reminding me how much He loves me, that He would send these blessings to cause me to smile. Then I am reminded that He loves me even more that He allows lessons to come out of those moments. When my son sounded so matter of fact that of course I would be picking up underwear because I am a mother, he said it just as if it is listed somewhere as a requirement. It made me think about what other things they think I do simply because I am their mother. Then I thought about what our description as Christians looks like. I remember hearing that children that are orphans who haven't lost hope yet have said they know a Christian will come for them. That they heard that Christians have a God who told them to care for orphans. And since their God said it, they will obey and come. That wrecks me every time I think of how long children wait with that hope. Some wait for a lifetime.
In K.P. Yohannan's book Destined to Soar, he tells this parable about an eagle. "A tiny eaglet fell out of his nest in a tall tree near a farm, and landed in a chicken coop. He found himself surrounded by little chicks and thought they were his siblings. He grew up like them, learning to scratch for insects and peck at the seeds the farmer scattered in the barnyard.
The young eagles's wings and feathers began to grow, but he never perceived himself to be anything more than a member of his chicken family. One day an older eagle, soaring in the sky, spotted him in the barnyard. The eagle swooped down and had a face-to-face talk with the young eagle. 'You are not a chicken,' he said, 'You are an eagle. You are not suppose to hop around on the ground looking for bugs.This is not your life. You are meant to fly in the heavens and ride the wind.'
These words opened the little eagle's eyes to who he really was and gave him the desire to join his new friend above the clouds. He spread his wings and, after a few attempts to lift off, flew to the nearest tree. With each try he flew farther and higher; before long, he mounted up with the wind and disappeared into the vastness and freedom of the sky. This story illustrates how we as believers are meant to live up to our God-given potential. It also teaches us that the foundation for our behavior and success comes from our understanding of who we are in Christ."
That is exactly what that moment with my son showed me! We need to know who we are in Christ and what we were made for. Otherwise, we will be thinking we are "chickens" when we are really meant to soar. We are meant to be that tangible love to those that never knew it, to be his Hand's and Feet that His love will be known because we shared it. We were meant for so much more. So why do we let ourselves believe we can't do what we were made for?
That day we were doing school and one of my sons replied that his only desire was to be a man with mad abs that caused me to think about what my desire is. Right now I want to bring my children that are waiting as orphans home. I desire that more hearts would be moved to help that happen. That the value of their lives would be known and that would cause hearts to be stirred without me feeling like I am begging and trying to do fundraiser after fundraiser.
Do we truly desire to be the eagle, to face that huge impossible thing in front of us that can only be done if God shows up? Or have we settled to be content with only doing what makes sense and what we can accomplish on our own? In Kisses from Katie she talks about what her desires for her life look like and how they have changed. At 19 she left a very comfortable life and moved to Uganda where she adopted fourteen children. "This is not the life that I dreamed up on my own or even knew I desired. I am watching God work, and as I 'delight myself in the Lord' by doing what He asks of me and by saying yes to the needs He places in front of me, He is changing the desires of my heart and aligning them wit the desires of His. As I go with Him to the hard places, He changes them into the most joyful places I could imagine.' She described it so well.... as we say yes to what he places before us He changes the desires of our hearts to align with His.
I remember taking a class one summer in college. The professor asked, "What are your goals in this class?" "Raise your hand if you hope to meet new people while you are here." A lot of hands went up. And then he asked, "How many of you sat with someone you don't know?" Not many hands went up. He explained, "There is often a conflict in human behavior between our goals and our actions. If we want to make new friends, we would sit with new people and make new friends. But our conflicting behavior will have us do what we know and what we feel comfortable with even though it is contrary to our goal."
That's us, or atleast I know that is me. We want to eat healthy, but we bring sweet things in the house. We want to try something new, but don't want to change our routine. We say we are prolife, that our hearts break for what breaks His, but we watch families trying to bring children out of their orphanages and say if it is God's will He will provide. True enough He provides but what if He meant for us, the body, to be used to provide, to give up something that was in our "chicken mentality" so that we can soar because we know who we are?
So how does my son asking "Can I if I wear underwear" turn into a lesson from God for me? Here we go, another quote out of Kisses from Katie. She is writing about all the questions and what ifs that children often ask. "Mommy where does the sun go when I am sleeping? Mommy are all ladybugs girls? Mommy where do I go when I die? Do fish go there too?....Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" They were on their way to the Nile River for some of her children to be baptized. One of the children asked "Mommy, if Jesus comes to live inside my heart, will I explode?" She quickly answered "NO!" Then after thinking about it, she answered, "Yes, if Jesus comes to live in your heart, you will explode." She goes on, "That is exactly what we should do if Jesus comes to live inside our hearts. We will explode with love, with compassion, with hurt for those who are hurting, and with joy for those who rejoice. We will explode with a desire to be more, to be better, to be close to the One who made us."
Darcie Gill who was with Voice of the Martyrs had spoke at our church a couple months ago. She had made an observation that as Christians in America we will often ask ourselves, what will happen if I do what God is asking me to do. What will my life look like, what will it do to my family, what will it do to my relationships? While Christians in other parts of the world often ask, what will happen if I don't do what God is asking me to do. What will my life look like, what will it do to my family what will it do to my relationships. When God spoke these three children to us my first response was the what if I do? But God kept bringing me back to what if I don't. I would be choosing to miss out on a blessing. Choosing what is comfortable when I say my desire is to be close to Him but not willing to walk where all I have would be Him. I couldn't reconcile with the what if I do... I felt every part of my heart scream "what if I don't".
Our Pastor shared this week about a ministry in India that rescues young girls from trafficking. If the rescue goes wrong the men are often beat by the people that are trafficking the girls. When one of the men were asked about the beatings and why he would put himself in a position where that could happen, he replied that those girls are beat over and over and over again everyday and sold to men that will also beat them. He said if he can take just one beating for one of those girls they are worth it. Could we do that? Could we believe that these children are worth it? Would you believe that these three children that we are bringing home are worth it? It wouldn't cost anything as severe as a beating but maybe go without something extra? A coffee one day or eating out, or fill in the blank with anything, are they worth it?
Have you heard of Stella's Voice? "Before opening Stella's House, for many years Philip Cameron raised funds to aid and rebuild government-run orphanages in Moldova. He specifically began raising funds to help a very poorly maintained handicapped orphanage in Hincesti, Moldova where he met a young girl named Stella. Stella suffered from epilepsy and was paralyzed on the right=hand side of her body. After visiting the orphanage several times, he became friends with Stella and she later called herself Philip's assistant". Later, Philip returned to the orphanage to discover she was no longer there. When she turned 16 she was too old to stay and was forced to leave the orphanage. After searching, Philip learned that Stella was abused and died of AIDS from being sold into human trafficking. This motivated him to build homes called Stella's Houses for young orphan girls to be protected from sex trafficking predators."
STELLA
I am not sure of all the what ifs..... what if the desires we have for our lives conflict with what we were made to do? What if the children we are bringing home were left behind what would happen to them? If hearts don't move enough for more people to walk with us to get them here what happens? If friends, family, and total strangers keep turning away who will believe they are worth a sacrifice of being comfortable? If we don't understand who we are in Him and that we are to be His love at what cost does our lack of understanding come. Is it life? Is it death? If our girls were sold like Stella would they meet the same fate? What if and can I IF??? My son asked "Can I (wear the wrestling outfit outside) if I wear underwear"..... and I am asking you - will you, can you help us bring our children home if you know you were made to love, if you know the cost of not doing what you can could cost them everything. If you understood how much greater the what if I don't is than the what if I do. Would you?
We received our verbal referral last week. In two weeks we will have travel dates for July. There is still a great need financially. If you would consider being a part of "Alonzo's", "Sophia's", and "Mary Ellen's" story, you can donate via paypal - praishm@hotmail.com or through our Reeces Rainbow link, http://reecesrainbow.org/73524/sponsorvargas
If you are in our near PA, and have any gently used shoes you can part with, we will be continuing to collect shoes into the middle of August.
