To Such as These

To Such as These, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
-Luke 18:16

This is me.
I have a name, but it is not easy to remember or pronounce and the person to whom it is attached to holds no real value. Or so people tell me.
I am small. And the world around me is so big.
There are things I want.
To be comforted in the black pit of night. To raise my eyes and see sunlight streaming through my window, instead of waking to a smudged scene as dim to my heart as to my sight. To know if anything I do, any words I can stumble from my mouth, are worthy enough to catch praise. For my father to take notice. For my mother to smile with her heart. But my wants are met with a silence, cold and loud that speaks of my insignificance.
I am afraid to lift my eyes and meet the ones I long to light with love. But they look past me, a void between the brows, glazing as if I am not in the room. Or they are full of lead and heaviness, a dark pool of pain that turns on me. They are cruel. And all I can do is cower, hoping it won’t take long to extinguish.
Sometimes my stomach trembles for days, feeding off itself because I don’t remember the last time I had a meal. Or even a scrap to keep me scraping along. My tiny belly bloats, and a tiredness takes root inside me that makes playing even seem impossible. My mother wants to fill my hunger. You can see it in her waning eyes. But there are so many mouths to feed, and there is so little provision…
Maybe one day the tasks I do will help. Maybe one day all the hours at the market, begging with my flea-specked hands outstretched will bring a loaf of bread or basket of fruit, something to sustain us and give us hope. Maybe one day my arms will be strong and I can work the fields so my mother doesn’t have to. Maybe my father will come back and care for me, like he once promised to do so long ago.
For such a small heart, it sure sits heavy inside of me. I long to love and be loved back. I have so much to give. I have a bright, wide smile that rejoices in simple games and gentle gestures. If you were to slip your large, clean hand into my small and dusty one, you would find our fingers fit perfectly together. I’d like to crawl into your lap and delve into the depths of your care.
I want to be heard. I want to be seen. I want to be filled with an endless love, grace poured out to me like the river I bathe in.
Tonight, I’ll lay on the floor in the corner of my mud-caked hut, chilled by the cool earth and sleep a dreamless sleep. But it’s ok that I don’t dream. You get used to forgetting what once gave you hope. What you once looked forward to. Tonight I’ll trust that I survived another day. That I am alive. That has to count for something, small as my life may be. And if I wake into another day, I will rise and wander the streets again, looking for leftovers or tatters of clothes to sustain me and my family.
This is me. This is my life. Wanting to cling to someone who will look into my drooping eyes and tell me that I am worth something. Anything. I just long for a little bit to believe in.
Help me believe.

Prayer:
Jesus, help the children. Help the little ones who want, who wander lost, lonely and in despair. Help me to help heal them, however big or small my role may be. For Your kingdom belongs to such as these. Wrap them in Your comfort, let them feel the warmth of Your overflowing love. Hold onto them tightly, Lord. Amen.

***
Every day, thousands of children go to bed hungry, dirty, and afraid, full of desperation and a lingering loneliness. They look at the crumbling world around them, seeing no answers to the unasked questions they seek. Their families are grasping to keep together, battling unemployment, depression, and starvation. Sometimes, there is nowhere to sleep but on the ground, covered in dirt and garbage and a saturated hopelessness. They go to sleep wishing for a chance to survive, grow and live.
You have the chance to help. Through Compassion International, you can feed and clothe children, help them receive medical attention that can be deadly to them though they are easily treatable, and give them an education that builds up their hearts and heads to provide a new and hopeful life that they otherwise might never know. You can change the plight of these children. You can encourage them that their future is glowing brighter by the day. Whether it’s sponsoring a child for a mere $38 a month, donating to medical treatment, disaster relief or the unsponsored children, or offering to pray for their hearts and homes, you will be making a significant difference in the life of a child who lives in poverty.
It only takes one ripple to cause a tidal wave. It only takes one snowflake to start an avalanche.
It only takes one person to teach and live out the love of Jesus.
Please, consider changing the life of a child through Compassion International. What you give comes back tenfold and the greatest blessing is the joy blooming in you knowing a little boy or girl will have enough to eat, will be encouraged that their life is beautiful and worth so much, and that they receive the love of Christ to fully satisfy their craving heart.
Visit www.compassion.com for more information and various ways you can help, or send me a message. I’m more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
God bless you, and may you sincerely seek to help these broken, beautiful children.

Believe

Believe.


Such a tiny word. Yet it holds so much inside its letters.

Believe. Can I let You lead me into something beautiful, something big and beyond anything I could ever imagine?

Where will I go with this fragile blooming faith?

Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Can Imagine

Thanks to BarnesandNoble for the photo.

Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Can Imagine by Max Lucado

We strive to be forgiven, to be good enough, to do enough, to earn our way into Heaven by a resume of all our time spent working to be welcomed. In the end, it leaves us drained and depraved of energy, of joy and hope. We’ve been looking in all the wrong places to give us our satisfaction. What we need, as Max Lucado points out in his book I reviewed on Booksneeze®, Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Can Imagine, has already been given to us by a gracious God. And in that adjective lies the focus of the story- grace.

Always a fan of Lucado’s books, when I saw Grace available to read and review, my fingers couldn’t click the button to choose this one fast enough. From the first page until the last, I happily reveled in Lucado’s typical lyrical, story-like language, with the gospel truth efficiently relayed in a straightforward way that brought to life for the reader what exactly this whole grace thing is all about. Broken into chapters, each starts with a scripture verse, quote and passage that appears in that chapter. Lucado’s voice is lively and vivid and puts the immense concept of grace into ways we humans can manage to understand and soak in. God’s voice is heard in his words, and he did not disappointed on his latest book.  I would enthusiastically recommend Grace to anyone who wants to dive a little deeper into the depths of God.

Take Heart

Take Heart, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

Take heart.
Gather His grace
in the pockets
of your soul
and comfort
your trembling self,
knowing He is
over you,
lifting you up,
daring you
to dream.

***

Daring to dream. I think God is nudging me to trust Him to take me to a beautiful expectancy.

Painted on the Page

I just received my first paycheck for my freelance writing. I wrote for a newspaper five years ago, and then somehow it stopped and I always wanted to get back in but the opportunity never presented itself. I guess it just wasn't the right time. Until now.

Since August, I've been back with the paper writing features stories about community people and happenings. My name has been printed in the byline, and my words painted on the page. And now, I am officially making money as a writer.

Praise be to the God of beautiful things! You have no idea how wonderful this feels.

Sometimes She Forgets What She Wants

Sometimes She Forgets What She Wants, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

She’ll leave a bit of it on the beach, half buried in beige wrinkled sand, forever discarded like a lost pair of sunglasses. Only when she is safe and sound, miles from the shore and waist deep in monotonous moments will she realize her chest is lighter, that there is an empty space where all her other pieces slide around and jostle for the extra leg room. She’ll search for it, casually at first, because she must have simply left it upstairs. But then the panic grows and she tears apart the house, the yard, the car, running through each hidden crevice it could have crawled into. When the hours fold into one another and all resources have been exhausted, she crumples onto the feather bed, despondent, fear gripping her eyes because now she’ll have to live with no fire in her heart, no passion providing her drive. It is a fate worse than death and she’ll curse her forgetfulness and rue that second on the beach when she tossed one last look behind her and blinked when her sight scanned the tall, shimmering grass that held her diamond of a desire.

Stress Point

Stress Point: Thriving Through Your Twenties in a Decade of Drama

A woman’s twenties can be confusing, crazy and overwhelming, and we yearn to know how to handle these years. I had the opportunity to review the book Stress Point by Sarah Francis Martin through Booksneeze®, and found it to deliver an in depth “how-to” on surviving the decade and finding your permanent place in Christ as situations, emotions and relationships are constantly shifting. Chapters break down according to different stress points women in their twenties experience, and Martin places interactive journaling pages throughout the chapters, focusing on the issues at hand and how to place them at the feet of our King.

                The book presented a nice layout and order, and focused on a lot of issues I could relate to, but there were also a few chapters that did not apply to me, at least in my life right now. I really liked the journaling portions, as they were helpful to bring my focus back to God, yet at times I felt like the scenarios she presented and asked which related best to me did not fall into my exact situations, and that I was often a little bit of multiple scenarios when she asked which one sounded like me. The layout is presented in a modern look that grabs the attention of today’s twenty-something, and the main focus of the book is how to find one’s fit not in each situation, but in Christ and how He will work through you and the situation you’re faced with. While it doesn’t necessarily solve all the problems of young women, or propose new and unique ways to look at the issues, it is a good book to help get back to placing the focus on God and how to anchor on Him through this changing and confusing decade.

Thanks to Barnes&Noble for the image use.