There's a prayer board up in our school room. I've been wanting to teach the kids more about prayer. More about not just praying for ourselves but praying for others. More about not just our community of family and friends, but also our nation, and our world. There are some hard things going on in the world today. Hard topics for kiddos maybe, but I long for my kids to know that there is a great big world out there and not everyone lives like we do. We have our struggles and other people have their struggles and we all get the privilege of praying for one another.
The morning I saw the picture of the little boy washed up on the shore in the newspaper, my heart broke for what so many families are going through. It feels heavy as a Mama. I have my daily things that I struggle with, but our struggles are not safety, or food, or shelter. If we're honest, we have way more than we could ever need in all those things, even in the seasons when money has been "tight."
I had a long discussion on the couch with the Cowboy the night I saw that picture.. and not a discussion without tears. I couldn't imagine being that Mama, having to risk to everything just to find a safe place, having to accept such a loss as losing my little boy to drowning, cuz the boats were to full or because the place of safety that I was seeking just wouldn't let me in. My Mama heart broke because in the thick of all that these families are going through, so many of them do not even have Christ. And that's when the tears started to fall in our conversation. It's one thing to be in a desperate situation, it's another thing to be desperate without the hope that comes from knowing Jesus.
The other hard part of seeing all the hard things going on in the world is that I constantly wonder what my part in all of it is. I want to fix everything. I want to be a part of the solution. Normally after the kids are in bed, the Cowboy and I catch each other up on the days events and then we watch a show and fall asleep on the couch. But that night, it felt almost impossible to watch some silly house show on HGTV with my heart knowing the weight of the day's events around the world.
I'm thankful for the Cowboy and his ability to care deeply, but not get swept away by emotion. Our current reality is that the Lord has us here in Colorado on our little farm. He does not have us across the ocean in the thick of this particular conflict. He has everyone in different circumstances so that we can serve others right where we are. There are needs to be met right under our nose, and the hearts and struggles of the folks in our neighborhoods and communities are equally as precious to the Lord as the needs of those across the world.
And so we serve right here. And the Cowboy takes our oldest down the road to sweet Ms. June's house to mow her fields since her husband passed away last month. And when she calls that night after getting home from work, she cries tears of gratitude on the phone cuz something as simple as mowed fields feels HUGE to her.
There's a time for everything. There's a time to stay, and there's a time to go. There's a time to serve and theres time to give.
For our family and the refugees, there are still some things we can do even though we are not currently on the front lines.
Today, we can pray. We can always pray. And prayer, even though somedays it might feel like the least tangible thing we can do, it just might actually be the most powerful and effective thing we can do.
And we can give. We can give to those who are on the front lines. We can give the needful things, like blankets and shoes and clothes. There is an organization here in the Springs that collects all the items needed to set up an apartment for refugees just arriving in our city with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
As I shared these things with our kids they wanted some way to raise their own money to give. And together we decided we could sell our farm fresh eggs and give the money we make to the refugees.
When the Spunky girl came in from collecting the eggs this morning, she told me, "Guess what Mama? While Jed and I were collecting the eggs this morning, we prayed for the refugees that Jesus would help them to find a safe place for their families to live."
Helping others one dozen eggs at a time.
Sometimes it feels small.
But it's a great start for our little tribe of treasures.
It's giving our kids a tangible way to reach out across the world, to pray, and to give.
