Prayer

I loved this prayer from our study of "Cat and Dog Theology" in community group last night and thought I'd share it with you:

Lord, we do not live for ourselves, we live for Your greatest glory.
Bless us with all things or give us nothing.
Honor us before others or bring us low.
Put us to doing or appoint us to suffer.
Give us work or keep us unemployed.
Send us overseas or keep us home.
Shatter any dream that is not yours.
We freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.
All we ask is that we delight in Your glory!

I'll tell you what. Pray a prayer like that and get ready to see God work. I remember doing that about 5 years ago and look where we ended up :)!

A funny memory...

I was just remembering a time a few years ago when Evan was little and I was teaching him to say thank you for each gift after he received it NO MATTER WHAT! I had learned this the hard way with Clayton. Being a new mom it never occurred to me that I would need to train him to respond with thankfulness to each of his gifts. Imagine my horror one year when after one gift he yelled "I DON'T LIKE THIS!" and after seeing a gift Evan had received he yelled "HE ALREADY HAS THAT!" Needless to say that was taken care of by the time his birthday arrived! So back to my story....Evan is little and we are "practicing" responding to our gifts. It goes something like this:

ME: "No matter what gifts you get, what do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if you don't like it? What do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if you already have it? What do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if it is pink barbie undewear? What do you say?"
Evan: Sits for a long time and you can see him processing this. After awhile he responds with a smile "No thank you!"

I still laugh when I think about that!

I share that with you to also tell you that I am reading a fantastic book called Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Even we need to "train" ourselves to respond in gratitude to God for each and ever gift NO MATTER WHAT! I highly recommend it!

A Piece of My Heart

Is there something that God has given you a heart for unlike anything else? A particular cause or group of people that you can stand behind with every fiber in your being. For some it is breast cancer, or the homeless, or animals. For me it's people with special needs. When I was a child my neighbor gave birth to a beautiful girl with cerebral palsy. Before I was even old enough to babysit I would go over there and keep an eye on that sweet girl while her mom took a nap after a long day of work and eventually I started babysitting her. So started my journey. When I was in 6th grade I volunteered over the summer at a preschool that had many children with various special needs. At 16 my first job was as a camp counselor. I was so excited to spend the summer with my friend who also got the job. At orientation they mentioned that they needed counselors for their special needs camp. That's all I needed to hear and I volunteered to transfer to that camp. What amazing experiences I had that summer! When it was time for consideration for colleges there was no question that I would pursue special education. I'd never considered anything else (except maybe deaf education but close enough). During college I held various jobs, one of which was at a home where three mentally disabled girls lived, and the organization I worked for provided round the clock care for them. Unfortunately it wasn't the best place to work but certainly not because of the girls. I eventually needed to leave because of the way some things were handled but still learned a TON!
OK I really got blabbing there but all of this is to say that I've discovered a ministry that I want to share with you that reflects my heart. Reece's Rainbow is a ministry that helps find families for Down Syndrome children(primarily..but also other children with disabilities) in orphanages overseas. In these countries children with disabilities are considered worthless. They are put in orphanages until they are about 4 at which time they are moved to institutions. After that point they can no longer be adopted. Many die with the first year, most by age 10. I get choked up just typing this....that is a piece of my heart and it kills me. I've prayed and prayed and God hasn't clearly told me that there is a way for us to adopt one of these children so I'm telling you about it so that you can see what God tells you ;). The sweet baby on the right is Sophia and she is a Reece's Rainbow child.
But you know, as I type this I realize that the United States isn't always much better. Did you know that there is about a 92% abortion rate in pregnancies with Down Syndrome children? Appalling isn't a word strong enough for that statistic. Oh Lord, that you would give me the privilege of doing something about this for your glory, would be an honor!