generous tuesday

black friday. check.
cyber monday. check.

today is generous tuesday.
let's look outward, shall we?

we're constantly trying to teach this to our kids.
there are opportunities daily to put others first.
if you don't see these opportunities, ask God to make you aware of the needs around you.
and maybe, you need to get your life messed up a bit more. . . just a gentle nudge . . . no judgement here. ;)

today while at a thrift store with my two littlest, there was a little girl who was clearly hurting.
she looked, maybe three years old, and just as full of anger and hatred as anybody i've ever seen.
she followed us around the store cursing at us and trying to hit sawyer.
my heart was/is broken for her.
i wanted to scoop her up in my arms and show her Jesus sweet, tender love for her.
i couldn't do that, but i could call her sweetie and smile at her and look at her with love in my eyes.
i keep thinking of her and praying for her.

i believe Jesus will show us the hurting and bring them right to us, if we're open to it.

if you're wondering how you can live generously this holiday season, may i suggest  sponsoring a child through compassion?
compassion is an amazing, holistic ministry, to children and families all over the world.
$38 a month is nothing compared to the changing a child's entire life.
when you decide to sponsor, you can choose a child who has been waiting the longest.
there are many children who have been waiting well over a year.
what a blessing it would be for them to find out that they have been chosen!!

you know what is awesome?
they have a compassion catalog.
you can look through it with your children and choose items to buy for children registered in compassion's programs.
you could buy a family live stock.
hello.
life. changing.

you could buy clean water.
you can buy medical care for a year for a baby.
you can buy care for a child waiting for a sponsor.
you can help an entrepreneur start a business.

i could go on and on.
but these are the kinds of gifts i want to give this christmas.

my friend, betsy, said to me once, "if we have anything at all, we have enough to share."
i have thought of that over and over.
she was actually referring to me borrowing some clothes for meliyah, but it relates to every part of life, doesn't it?

how are you living generously this holiday season?
how are you and your family looking outward?

let's share ideas, okay? ;)






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compassion

i am honored to be a compassion blogger and i am so happy to be participating in blog month for compassion.

i have known about compassion for years and always knew that when the time came for us to sponsor a child, we would do it through compassion.
i have no idea what we were waiting for.

last spring while at a beth moore conference, i finally signed up to sponsor a child.
there was a compassion table with rows and rows of pictures of sweet children who were waiting for sponsors.  
there were so many lovely faces, i asked Jesus to lead me to our child.
when i saw nora, i knew she was our girl.

aj's grandma was named lenora and i have always loved that name.
i felt drawn to nora but i also knew that God would bless our efforts, no matter who we chose.

i called aj from the conference and he was excited to start sponsoring as well.
we had wanted to do this for a long time and just hadn't done it.
we also realized that if we waited until it was "in our budget," we would never do it.
we know that God wants us to be obedient whether it appears to work out or not.
God can take care of the details. :)
we just needed to say yes.
it's so worth it to cut back in other areas in order to change this sweet little girl's life.

not only is this important for nora, but it's important for us.
it's important for our family to focus on someone else.
our kids can write letters to her and pray for her and have a small, tangible grasp of what life is like for a little girl on the other side of the world.

i am so so glad we finally started sponsoring and i look forward to watching little nora's life unfold.
i am praying i get to go visit her someday.
what an amazing gift that would be.

i would so encourage you to consider sponsoring a child through compassion.
even if it doesn't feel like it's in the budget, i bet there are some places you could cut back to make it work.
ask God to help you to make those tough choices in order to do something of eternal value for a sweet child.

would you all take some time to go to the sponsorship page and pray over the children?
pray for their protection.
pray that they would know Jesus.
pray that they would get sponsored.

this would be really great activity to do with your children and also a time to teach them about children around the world.

compassion's goal this month is to get 3,108 children sponsored by september 30, so this is a great time to start.
if you blog, you can become a compassion blogger and help children become sponsored that way.
won't you join me?




there is a ton information on the compassion website if you want to learn more about their holistic ministry to children.
it really is a great organization.

what about y'all?
have you been dragging your feet like we did for so long? {consider yourself nudged ;)}
are you currently sponsoring?
i would love to hear about your experience in the comments.


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