Some things in life can not be explained. Why would God allow one person to make millions of dollars only to blow it on drugs and premarital relations, while another searches the garbage innocently to find a scrap of food? Why do I lay in the comfort and warmth of my own bed next to my wonderful husband while another woman hides in terror waiting upon the arrival of her abusive spouse? Why does a crack addict bare children with handicaps, beaten and scared with no stable person to care for them, while the barren woman desperately cries for months on end waiting for just the chance of carrying their own? And yet, the crackhead, the barren, the blessed–they were all fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and we are all COG POW’s (as learned from Pastor Carrie Antzcak): Children of God, People of Worth.
I love the saying “If you are blessed, be a blessing.” It is our job to discern how God calls us to be a blessing. As wives and mothers, it can be hard because those missions come first. It is all and well to volunteer at the church, serve the hungry, or reach out to the needy but not at the cost of neglect to our families.
We try to involve our kids in a variety of missions and volunteer work in hopes of some sort of compassion sticking in their hearts. I want them to look back on their childhoods and remember service being a priority. And by no means is our family perfect. In fact, some days, the ungratefulness of my kids and sometimes even my own heart makes me wonder if any of it is making any difference. But then I’ll have a chat with God and realize that’s just the devil trying to get in. They’ll remember serving at the community dinners, picking up litter in a hard neighborhood, or putting together tie blankets at a local Linus Project event.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it (even if he tries really really hard to do so mid-childhood and rebels against everything you’ve taught him) (Proverbs 22:6, parentheses added). God will reward your effort, in this world and in the next. But it’s all in His timing, and that’s the hardest part.
