A Tribute to Children

Do you remember? Do you remember the first time someone else's need touched your heart? Do you remember the first time, probably in childhood, that you realized how truly blessed you were?

I see the lights coming on in my children's eyes. We learn about children all over the world who have so much less than we do. We read stories of children who pilfer through garbage in hopes of finding something to fill their hungry bellies. We pray for a child to receive the life saving surgery he desperately needs and would have received already here in the USA. We learn of boys, as young as 3 years old, shut away in mental institutions and left to die in cribs, alone. We pray for a sweet orphan girl, who came home to her family weighing just 11 pounds at three years old and knocking on death's door. We are angered by the judge who says a child is worthless, because God created him extra special.

Why? Why do I expose my children to such truths? Do I worry that they will be overburdened by these truths at such a young age? NO. They are simply learning about the needs of other children, other children, who need advocates. Children who have no voice and no one to pray for them. How can the reality that one child lives be too much information for my children to handle? Shame on us for thinking our children do not care. Or do we not tell our children these things, because we don't know how to answer their questions?

Questions? Questions, like what can we do to help? How many can come live at our house? If you show a child a problem the solution is almost always simple and black and white in their minds. We have taught them to pray, so they pray. We have taught them to give, so they give (generously). We have taught them to love, so they love. Then they look at us, the grownups, and wonder what we're doing allowing such horrible things to happen. Why aren't we helping? Why aren't we yelling and screaming for someone to change things? Why aren't we giving (generously and sacrificially). What are we doing?

I think, we feel justified in not sharing truth with our children, because we're "protecting" them. In fact aren't we protecting our own inaction? Aren't we shielding ourselves from the hard questions we will have to ask ourselves? Can we really think our children believe that we are the hands and feet of Jesus, when we rarely (if ever) do anything that remotely favors Christ? I challenge you to share the stories of children from around the world with your children and then really listen to their hearts as God speaks through them about how your family can help. They will amaze you and challenge you and inspire you to do more than you ever dreamed you would.

Pray, Adopt, Advocate, Support...Do Something...your children are watching.

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy