Things God Has Been Teaching Me

Do you ever have those times in your life where so many things fall in to place that just makes you say "OK God, I hear you". Well, God has been doing that to me for the past several months. Back in the fall I started reading Linny's blog. God started showing me these children in a place called Uganda that have nothing. I guess I'm not completely right on that because some of the kids are blessed enough to be taught that they have a Father in heaven that loves them very much. I just hurt so bad though that these kids are in need of so much including families.

When Linny traveled to Uganda to bring home her 2 miracle children she met this little girl named Martha. Martha was a girl they guessed to be around 2 that weighed less than 10 pounds when they found her on the street. Oh how I cried, prayed, cried, prayed and cried some more. I wanted more than anything to jump on a plane and bring this baby home. I started praying that God would let us be her parents but deep down I knew Jaxson wasn't ready yet for me to leave him to travel to Africa. I started praying that God would find Martha a family fast that could get to Africa before she died. I knew if God let her make it that long there had to be a reason he saved her. God answered my prayer and I'm sure the prayer of many others and Martha has a family working to bring her home.

Why God, why are children suffering?

Then our church did a series called The Love Movement. Chris and I love to give, giving is part of who we are. I have to tell you though that I learned a very BIG lesson from this series. We give because we love to give. There are things we give up like cable internet, vacations and other fancy things but those are easy things to give up. I learned that we need to give even when it's not easy. We need to love when it stretches us way beyond our comfort zone. We need to give things that aren't easy to give.

Did you watch the video I posted a while back? If you did well, I don't even need to say anything about the tears, the anger I felt from that.

I posted this quote this week: Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid God might ask me the same question.

To top it off I read one of my favorite blogs today called The Journey. This is a clip from her post today. You can click here to read the whole post.

I get caught up sometimes in "I deserve this" moments, moments where I compare myself to some other people I know and trick myself into believing that I am doing pretty good. Moments where I "deserve" a hot shower, or I "deserve" that chocolate bar even though I know it is expensive, moments when I "deserve" a new pair of shoes, because hey, I work hard. TRUTH: this is not at all scriptural. NO WHERE does it say that I am worthy or deserve a reward here on earth. Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever you do work at it with all your heart." It does not end in "and after this hard work you deserve a long hot bath and a chocolate bar." It does end in, "since you know that you will recieve an inheritance from the Lord as a reward."

Jesus said that the GREATEST commandment besides loving the Lord God with all my heart, mind, and soul is to love my NEIGHBOR as myself. Doesn't that mean, then, that I should be spending as much on my neighbor as I do on myself and my family? Doesn't that mean that I should feed my neighbor as well as I feed myself?

So this is what God is teaching me. First God has showed me that I am spoiled. God is teaching me that I don't need a huge house someday with fancy ceilings and a fancy countertop. God is showing me that we are to be his hands and feet. We as Christians are the ones letting children lay starving on the street, we are the ones letting people abort their babies, we are the ones letting children sit in orphanages and on streets as orphans. God has given us spoiled Christians the ability to stop these things but instead we choose to ask God why he allows it to happen.

PS If you have a nice house with fancy ceilings and countertops I'm not saying anything bad against you. Chris and I are praying God let's us build on our land someday and I dream of what our house will be like someday. God is teaching ME that all I need is something simple. Please I don't want anyone to think I'm judging you.