Friday, January 10, 2014

These Sweet Children Need Sponsors Now


> Fahim is 11 years old and lives in Indonesia.  He has been waiting seven months for a sponsor.  He lives in a country with high risk for child rights violations.  He really needs a sponsor.

Yeabtega lives in Ethiopia and has been waiting THIRTEEN months for a sponsor!  She lives in an AIDS affected area.  She lives with her grandparents, which often means the parents are victims of AIDS.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Believe

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions because I think if I need to make a change, I'm not going to wait until January 1 to decide to do that.  Furthermore, I don't like doing what everyone else is doing.

However, I began choosing a word to guide me each year, and I'm okay with the fact that lots of other people do that.  

Even before I begin thinking about choosing a word, it comes to me, and I realize, "Hey!  That's my word!"

For 2014, it's "believe."

This year will bring some major changes for me, and frankly, I'm afraid.  It's much easier to just stay docked in the harbor.  That open sea can be a bit scary at times.  I've been docked long enough, though.  This ship's gotta move.

Because of certain events in my life, especially in my childhood, I have a difficult time believing that good things will happen for me.  I'm quite good at encouraging others, but not good at all in believing in myself.  

Before Christmas, I kept thinking about the fact that Jesus' coming to Earth as an infant and delivering me from all my sins is the greatest miracle ever.  If He is capable of doing that and wants to do that for me, can't He and won't He do even smaller miracles for me?  And for all of us?

Of course, I have my idea of how I would like this year to play out, but for now I'm working on believing.  Believing in the power of God to work miracles in my life, but even more so, believeing in His incomparable love for me.  For ME.

My verse is Isaiah 43:18--Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

Whenever I've considered that verse previously, I've always thought of it as forgetting unfortunate things that happened, not letting what other people told me about myself determine who I am today.  I'm working on those things.  But this year the verse takes a new meaning for me--forgetting the things I haven't done that I wish I had.  I could go on and on listing those, but I'm forgetting them because God can and will save me, even from myself. 

And that's what I believe.