Today, give a gift to Gifty. At four years old, Gifty lives with her stepfather and her mother. At home, duties include helping in the kitchen and running errands. Her stepfather is sometimes employed and her mother maintains the home. There are 2 children in the family.

Gifty is not presently attending school. Singing and playing house are her favorite activities. She also attends church activities and Bible class regularly.

Your love and support will help Gifty to receive the assistance she needs to develop her potential. Please pray for her. Click HERE if you are interested in sponsoring Gifty.

This child lives in an AIDS affected area. In Africa, the disease has impacted the entire continent, creating a generation of orphans and vulnerable children. God can use you to help ease the pain of a child in desperate need.

IMPORTANT: A CREDIT CARD IS REQUIRED as payment because this child has been classified “HIGH PRIORITY”. This child has been waiting more than 6 months for a sponsor. Help make a difference in the life of this child, who is anxiously waiting for a sponsor.

Although most of us cannot be there literally, there is way to lend a hand in Haiti’s recent crisis. Give to an organization that you know proves themselves to be true and gives the money you donate straight to the people who need it most. Compassion already has workers on the ground in Haiti. If you would like to give, or just learn more about what they are doing, please click HERE.

All of you who are parents out there know…life becomes all about baby. At least for the first few months. I’ve learned so far that you can’t prepare yourself for anything, immense love does come instantaneously and naturally, and it is imperative to keep trusting God.

You never know if you’re making the right decision, you just have to pray and follow your heart. Pretty much like everything else in this life.

It’s scary, because I see the world moving around you and it almost seems to be moving past me. There is nothing I can do or say to make it slow down and fit with the pace my body and brain seem to be permanently resigned to. However, I see some light at the end. I see my baby girl laughing and smiling more, and I know that eventually, not only will I be able to fully return to trying to live, learn, and give as Jesus called me to (not that I have “paused,” rather I have very little people interaction at the moment), but I will be able to bring another little person with me and show her how important it is to care- about people, the world around her, and most of all the God who blessed us with her precious life.

I always wanted to…

Have it all together
Establish a career
Go back to school
Be financially stable

…first

However, don’t we all know by now God has other plans. I might have free will, but that doesn’t mean I’m always in control. Two days ago I saw the sweetest little face peering at me from the shoulder of another woman. He looked so peaceful, so tiny, so perfect. And I thought okay, I may not ever be ready, I may never have it all together, but this is something God put in my life for a reason. Not only can I give this child all the love I have but God has placed that desire in my heart. To pass on the immense love and grace God has given me, a purpose and a calling, onto another life.

Train s child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6

“You lie.”
“Beyonce’s video is better.”
“We are turning this nation socialist.”
“I want Obama to die.”
“He is a horrible person because he said X.”

I feel that somehow all of these are strangely connected. Based in a society that thrives on pointing out flaws and living on broken systems and never wanting to realize something better. In reality it seems that our plight for individual happiness has made us more upset, judgmental, and unhappy than ever. Our fringe groups bash other systems for having no control over their totalitarian terrorist government regimes then accuse Obama of being Hitler? Do they even know or realize that in these other countries the government bodies are actually the ones doing the raping and pillaging? And I’m not just talking money.

In light of all this it seems highly critical and narcissistic for so many people (Americans really) to be focusing on their own likes/dislikes, i.e. judgments, as the only approach to something. Showing no room for compromise or deliberation points to a God complex of being all knowing, which I can’t say I know of any one person who is even close.

Not only does individual effort have to be made to stop the judgments from coming from our own mouths, but a cry of prayer to our Father for intercession and a global softening of hearts towards others who may be different from ourselves. Sound like a big enough task? It is. But just asking God to change our hearts and looking at everything through the lens of our Father God is a massive start.

The deprivation of our world is only made more apparent by our autocratic need to look out for only ourselves or those like us.

Not only is there much to learn about pregnancy and becoming a mother, there is also that pesky weight gain. Whether you are a light gainer, a heavy gainer, or a moderate gainer, you think about your body constantly and notice the ways that it is changing- and there ain’t no stopping it! I think jiggling body parts are synonymous with expecting.

Everyone I meet or share a conversation with about this likes to remind me of the (apparently) old adage “Nine months up, nine months down. Don’t expect it to all fall off immediately!” Well, gee, thanks….?

I feel like God is trying to work with me though. Soften me to importance I have placed on physical appearance and perhaps still place on and lead me towards a place of more emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Balance. Finding beauty and peace in the absolute miracle (and pain) of bringing another life into this world.

So next time you are conversating with a woman, don’t try to argue away the weight gain, don’t try to share the lamest adage in the world, just focus on the wonderful, beautiful thing she is doing.

Okay, okay, you can remind her that she looks great for being a preggo, but don’t overdo it. We know we look different!

I had a miniature breakdown. I had to admit to my husband and myself what has been going on.

Pregnancy is not easy for everyone. While a lot of women love being pregnant some women really find it a time of struggle and low self worth.

I am the latter. I am lucky though. I have good days and bad. It is not all darkness. And I can see a happiness with bringing a new life into this world. I have great people around me and most of all a great God.

It is time to start turning over my emotion and my doubt to him. Thank you for all your prayers and support during this time.

And thank you most of all for keeping my husband sane. He needs the support as well since he is living with a crazy preggo.

It is time to open your heart to Brian. Brian is from Uganda, a nation that has been torn by war and violence (especially against children and using children) with Joseph Kony’s “The Lord’s Resistance Army.” Your sponsorship of Brian, your prayer and support, can make a huge difference in his life. Please consider allowing Brian to be part of your extended family. He is so young and has so much in front of him. Show him the love of Jesus, you never know what God has in store for this relationship. Click on Brian’s picture or name to sponsor or learn more!

Personal and Family Information:
In his home, Brian helps by carrying water. He lives with his father and his mother. His father is sometimes employed as a farmer and his mother is sometimes employed as a farmer. There are 7 children in the family.

For fun, Brian enjoys soccer and singing. He attends church activities regularly and is in kindergarten where his performance is average.

Because of your sponsorship, Brian will have new opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you for your concern and prayers.

This child lives in an AIDS affected area. In Africa, the disease has impacted the entire continent, creating a generation of orphans and vulnerable children. God can use you to help ease the pain of a child in desperate need.

As I get older I realize that life moves ever more quickly. Each passing day is a smaller percentage of our time here on earth. Still, each day counts. Each day gives us new opportunities and chances. In the past and present I have looked at my jobs more or less as means to an end (with the one very large exception of teaching). The truth is there are some positions where it is easier to remember who we are representing in the world. It’s simple, yes. But I hope that as each of our days passes and every time we clock in or out thinking we are being taken advantage of, that we remember who we ultimately belong to, and that any corporation or boss we have to deal with is not bigger than a God who can forgive us and love us and see through our entire being simultaneously. Regardless of our position, power, or job title, we aren’t working for ourselves or just a company, we are working for our Maker. Representing him in a world that often acts out of fear, rejection, or reaction. We can’t let our stories and our work say the same. What does it seem that our Savior has then saved us from? He has saved us (probably from even more than we would be comfortable sharing), and we need that to be evidenced in our lives.

We ARE Jesus to the world, in our workplace, every place where our identity is known it should also be known some of that identity: love, forgiveness, acceptance despite flaws.

My jobs might not be glamorous or even fulfilling in a worldly sense, but I am not there without a purpose.

Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Colossians 3:17, The Message

Most days I feel not spiritual enough. I look up from where I am and say, no, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You have not read your Bible in a week, you forgot to pray about that one thing you promised you would, you’re just not spiritual enough. You failed.

But it’s all a distraction. It’s all my head and my humanity taking me away from time I could be spending with my Savior. I really believe that there is no such thing as not spiritual or spiritual enough. There is only where your heart is and where you are allowing your heart to be led.

Are you consumed with the day to day mundane? The betterment of your personal situation? Or are you thinking of others, striving to reach out and love them in some way?

I have my good days and my bad days, as do you I am sure. But then I remember why I am here, why I have a hope, a certain peace, a joy, a sense of forgiveness for the all the wrong that I have done. The grace and love of Jesus.

And if I cannot take that and offer it back to others then it doesn’t matter what I’m praying or how much I’m reading. Somewhere along the way though, I have fallen in love with a Savior and now my life, my everything, is about making sure that others can experience that, that others can know their full worth.

So although there may be days where I am distracted, I am neither here nor there on the “spiritual scale.” And that is okay, because I have a purpose that rests in him, and I cannot imagine that anyone is perfect when it comes to their spirituality.

So, live out your calling in Him, and don’t get distracted by the little voice in your head that tries to point out all your shortcomings.

This is not a post to discount spiritual discipline, prayer, or reading the Word. Those things are important and I do very much enjoy my conversations with God and my times in scripture. But you know what? I have faked it too many times, you have faked it too many times. Let’s be honest about what we are doing, who we are, and why we are doing it instead of quoting a verse just to quote it or praying out of rote memorization. Jesus wants us- our lives, not just our empty words or actions, that yeah, to be honest… might make us appear really spiritual.