I read this (from a 147 blog) and it it struck me, so I'm posting it here.
"While Katie (Davis) was home we were talking about November being "orphan awareness month". Her response was "there is a month reminding people that there are orphans??!" the look on her face showed that she was SOOOO perplexed. It was a sad reality for me that we have to have a special "Orphan Sunday" for believers to acknowledge all of the orphans in the world."
I am SO grateful to live in America and to be an American, but good grief, sometimes the things we Americans do, don't do, or need reminding to do, just gets to me. Sometimes I feel like we. have. no. clue.
Like when I get frustrated with my kids because they don't take care of their stuff and I tell them there are children who have nothing and it goes in one ear and out the other because that statement really doesn't register with them. Why would it? Every single person they know has every single thing that they need.
Like when I banned the word "starving" from their vocabulary because my children, for the rest of their lives, will never truly know what starving feels like.
Like when I hear people say, "If an orphan showed up on my doorstep then yes, of course I'd take it in." and my heart breaks a little because you and I both know that, most likely, will never happen in Orange County California, or probably anywhere else in the U.S.
(But wait. It did. Granted it was a handful of generations ago and in Kentucky, but MY Great, Great Grandfather was left on a doorstep as a baby, in a basket, with only his last name (Prince) written on a paper with him. I KNEW adoption was in my blood!)
Anyway... I was just really struck by the glaring absurdity of needing to be reminded about something Christ so clearly defined for us Christians so as we'd never forget.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
"While Katie (Davis) was home we were talking about November being "orphan awareness month". Her response was "there is a month reminding people that there are orphans??!" the look on her face showed that she was SOOOO perplexed. It was a sad reality for me that we have to have a special "Orphan Sunday" for believers to acknowledge all of the orphans in the world."
I am SO grateful to live in America and to be an American, but good grief, sometimes the things we Americans do, don't do, or need reminding to do, just gets to me. Sometimes I feel like we. have. no. clue.
Like when I get frustrated with my kids because they don't take care of their stuff and I tell them there are children who have nothing and it goes in one ear and out the other because that statement really doesn't register with them. Why would it? Every single person they know has every single thing that they need.
Like when I banned the word "starving" from their vocabulary because my children, for the rest of their lives, will never truly know what starving feels like.
Like when I hear people say, "If an orphan showed up on my doorstep then yes, of course I'd take it in." and my heart breaks a little because you and I both know that, most likely, will never happen in Orange County California, or probably anywhere else in the U.S.
(But wait. It did. Granted it was a handful of generations ago and in Kentucky, but MY Great, Great Grandfather was left on a doorstep as a baby, in a basket, with only his last name (Prince) written on a paper with him. I KNEW adoption was in my blood!)
Anyway... I was just really struck by the glaring absurdity of needing to be reminded about something Christ so clearly defined for us Christians so as we'd never forget.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Comments
I am somehow proud that my ol' neighbor is going to be sharing her abundant love with a child who has so little. The blessings will be endless. XO