A few days ago, while I was putting Baby Brother down for his nap, Sis made some serious mischief.
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| The empty flour canister and the culprit's shoe. |
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| The naked culprit's clothes in my flour-coated kitchen . . . |
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| . . . counter top . . . |
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| . . . living room . . . |
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| . . . the big chair . . . |
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| . . . the play chairs . . . |
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| . . . and even into the bathroom. |
True Pain in the World
As Sis waited in her room and I began attempting to de-flour my house, I tried to calm my fury. Fortunately for all of us, in the back ground I was listening to Chris Fabry Live on the radio. It was the first hour of his March 31st program; his guest was Kimberly Smith who works with Make Way Partners and they were talking about human trafficking.
In the moment, I didn't hear a lot of the program--just snippets as I turned off the vacuum cleaner now and then (it takes a lot of vacuuming to clean up several pounds of flour).
Near the end, however, I heard his guest give the statistic that 80% of the world lives in extreme poverty--whole family working hard in hopes of perhaps having just one small meal for the day, many living in the shadow of war lords, drug lords, and sex traffickers. Eighty percent. Eight of ten. Most. The majority of the world.
And suddenly most of my thoughts seemed smaller than trivial:
May I help cultivate His heart of compassion for the hurting world in my children.
I don't want the spiritual heritage I'm passing on to my children to be a shallow, pampered thing of cute crafts and clever object lessons. Not that there's anything wrong with crafts and object lessons to teach spiritual truths--scripture is full of object lessons--but at the heart of it all must be those spiritual truths that Jesus called us to live. And they must be lived out, not just given lip service as tag lines on craft projects.
I've been studying the book of Matthew recently and again and again I see Jesus' compassion for the hurting world around Him. If we are to live as Jesus did--what should that compassion look like in my life? And how do I nurture that compassion in my children?
The First Step is Modeling
Do I truly have a heart for the hurting world? Does my time-management, money-management, and prayer life reflect a heart burdened for the lost and suffering world? Do I live this out day after day--not just for fleeting moments after I hear a moving radio program?
I have a lot of thoughts swirling in my head right now about child sponsorship, our local homeless ministry, missionaries who visited here this fall and are now serving in Ecuador, globes . . . more posts to follow as my husband and I discuss how to more intentionally cultivate compassion in our kids.
For today, Make Way Partners has a weekly email prayer letter for which I've signed up. I am committing to pray:
Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
As Sis waited in her room and I began attempting to de-flour my house, I tried to calm my fury. Fortunately for all of us, in the back ground I was listening to Chris Fabry Live on the radio. It was the first hour of his March 31st program; his guest was Kimberly Smith who works with Make Way Partners and they were talking about human trafficking.
In the moment, I didn't hear a lot of the program--just snippets as I turned off the vacuum cleaner now and then (it takes a lot of vacuuming to clean up several pounds of flour).
Near the end, however, I heard his guest give the statistic that 80% of the world lives in extreme poverty--whole family working hard in hopes of perhaps having just one small meal for the day, many living in the shadow of war lords, drug lords, and sex traffickers. Eighty percent. Eight of ten. Most. The majority of the world.
And suddenly most of my thoughts seemed smaller than trivial:
- my frustration about the piddling inconvenience of cleaning a massive mischievous mess
- my materialistic desire to replace my ugly carpet and buy new pots for my house plants
- my obsessive desire to buy expensive hand soap and shampoo that would reduce our exposure to potentially harmful chemicals supposedly in the regular stuff
- my covetous bibliophilic desire to buy almost every book I ever hear anyone mention.
May I help cultivate His heart of compassion for the hurting world in my children.
I don't want the spiritual heritage I'm passing on to my children to be a shallow, pampered thing of cute crafts and clever object lessons. Not that there's anything wrong with crafts and object lessons to teach spiritual truths--scripture is full of object lessons--but at the heart of it all must be those spiritual truths that Jesus called us to live. And they must be lived out, not just given lip service as tag lines on craft projects.
I've been studying the book of Matthew recently and again and again I see Jesus' compassion for the hurting world around Him. If we are to live as Jesus did--what should that compassion look like in my life? And how do I nurture that compassion in my children?
The First Step is Modeling
Do I truly have a heart for the hurting world? Does my time-management, money-management, and prayer life reflect a heart burdened for the lost and suffering world? Do I live this out day after day--not just for fleeting moments after I hear a moving radio program?
I have a lot of thoughts swirling in my head right now about child sponsorship, our local homeless ministry, missionaries who visited here this fall and are now serving in Ecuador, globes . . . more posts to follow as my husband and I discuss how to more intentionally cultivate compassion in our kids.
For today, Make Way Partners has a weekly email prayer letter for which I've signed up. I am committing to pray:
- for the needs of those hurting around the world
- that I might have a Christ-like heart of compassion for those hurting people
- that God will help me cultivate such a heart in my children as well.
Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
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