MAMA MONDAY: Love Without Boundaries

I want to teach my kids that they're not too small to make a difference. Children have an amazing ability to love without boundaries. 

When they see a homeless person, they gaze with curiosity and ask, "Mom, isn't there something we can do for him?" 

When they see an article about a sibling group who needs a family, my kids say, "Mom, why don't we adopt them? We would love to have more brothers and sisters!"

When they hear of children in third-world countries dying because of unclean drinking water, my kids beg, "Mom, let us do a lemonade stand so we can raise money for a clean water well to be drilled!"

When they don't eat all the food on their plate and I remind them of the starving children in Africa, they are more than eager to box up the food and ship it oversees. Okay, I'm pretty sure their heart motive isn't right on this one, but just had to throw this in for kicks and giggles!

My point is, kids notice people in need. How long will they continue caring if we don't ever allow them the opportunity to meet a need that is tugging on their hearts? Will our apathy cause our kids to become apathetic? Will they turn their eyes away from the need and stop speaking up simply because they figure we won't listen? Do they hear us making up excuses as to why we can't help? Do we realize as moms that we're teaching them to grow up and make the same excuses?

I want to be a mom who teaches my kids that they have the power to impact a person's life for the good. It might be hard. It might be uncomfortable. But isn't hard and uncomfortable the marks of a follower of Christ? The disciples' lives were anything but easy and comfortable once they decided to follow Jesus. But in that place of hard and uncomfortable, they grew in their faith, they experienced Christ's power and they changed the world forever.  If I am only raising my kids to be happy and comfortable, then who is raising the next generation of Christ followers?

As I sit here in my warm house, sipping on chai tea, I realize that I have a lot to learn about the hard and uncomfortable. And while God hasn't called me to sell all I have and move to a third world country, he has called me to love without boundaries. He has called me to be a little uncomfortable in how much I give of my time and resources. He has called me to do some things that are outside of my comfort zone. And he has called me to parent my kids in a way that teaches them not to be afraid of hard opportunities to love extravagantly.

I'd like to share with you one of my kid's favorite outreach projects that happens every year in November: Operation Christmas Child, an outreach of Samaritan's Purse. I will include a link to their website for more details, but basically what happens is that I take each of my kids to the store with a shoe box to fill for a child in need. They choose in advance if they are going to fill the box for a boy or girl and they also get to choose the child's age. Typically they enjoy picking the same gender and age as themselves. I let them loose in the store to choose toys, school supplies, hygiene items and candy that they think their anonymous friend will enjoy. Once home, we pack the boxes, write a personal note, pray for the child and drop our boxes off at a local OCC collection center. For extra added fun, we also started hosting small packing parties at our house so my kids could get their friends involved! A highlight of our experience with OCC is that my son now has a pen pal in Malawi that he is able to communicate with on a regular basis. This has given my son the opportunity to learn about another culture and hear from the heart of a boy his same age who does not have all that my son has. This friendship is a gift from God and has shown my kids that they have the ability to touch a child's life on the other side of the world. If you would like more details about Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child, here is the link (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/). 

Let's be moms who link arms with our kids to make an impact here at home and all around the world.