The last several weeks have found me thinking a lot about my lifelong dream that somewhere over the last couple of years I kind of buried, or filed away in hidden storage of my mind. My dream for as long as I can remember has been to have a ranch, with horses and farm animals and a garden...and I want to work with kids in the foster system that have been bounced around too much because of behavioral issues. As only God can do...we had a guest speaker a couple weeks ago, that runs a program for foster kids to get to attend camp. He totally brought the rest of my dreams and plans to the very front, along with many tears and a broken heart for a broken world that does not take care of widows and orphans as we've been commanded to do.
Matthew 25:31-46
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.’
Funny how dreams work. Funny how time changes circumstances...but like many things in my life over the last year, I lay it at His feet, I believe He gave me that dream and that desire and that He will bring it to fruition according to his perfect will and timing; and He will also do the work in my husbands heart without my ever saying a word, if it's His will.
Along with the dream resurfacing to the forefront of my mind has been this boredom of doing Bible Studies. I want to do something! There is nothing wrong with doing Bible Studies and frankly, the Bible is my favorite book, however, we are to be doers and when we are not doing there is this void in our lives. James 1:22-25 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
I struggle very much with this desire to be in full-time ministry and the very real fact that I am already in 2 full-time ministries: wife and mom. It is my job to train these children up in a way that honors God and so that they know God and not just mom's God. Too much time playing and hanging out, not enough doing. Why do we think that kids can't handle stuff, why are kids not really welcome in ministering to others? The same Holy Spirit that dwells in me dwells in my children, there is no maturing of the Holy Spirit, He is already God and was there at the beginning. We mature and become better listeners, The Holy Spirit doesn't change, just like God. I want to teach my kids to do something...am not sure yet, what this will look like, or where we will be led to give back to others. But, I want my kids to know how to be a servant and how to actively love with the love of Christ. We've been reading in our homeschool history books stories of kids, Elijah's age, in the pioneer days that had massive responsibilites, they handled the farm animals, they carried knives, they cooked the meals for the parents and had active rolls in helping with the younger children. But we pad our children's worlds a bit too much, protecting them from both good and bad things, and stunting the growth of their critical thinking and maturity.
Does taking my kids to a soup kitchen sound like fun to me? No, not really! I think that the 1st few times it would really try my patience and tempt my temper to flare :) But, do I think that my kids would greatly benefit from seeing real need and helping to serve, and or just putting a smile on a lonely persons face? Absolutely!
No comments:
Post a Comment