The face of Generosity

Hello, Children of God! I hope you had a blessed and wonderful time since my last post! Today I will be dedicating this post to two kids who has a special place in my heart, Nathalie Pale and Sie Pale from Burkina Faso. We are sponsoring children in Africa! How great it is to know that a child will be going to school and get and education as well as medical care because you took the time to care. It so easy to get stuck in our routine and comfortable life, but what is it doing for the heart and your soul? It's certainly not nourishing it. I find that getting out of that comfort zone and being a helping hand give me greater joy than to receive. I feel whole, I feel complete as I close my eyes at night. Even more, I feel bless to have been the person who was able to help. On the other hand when it comes to help and there's money involved it's hard. Maybe because I'm a child and I rarely get money, so when I do get some...well, yeah, I want to keep it! That's when I need to collect myself and just look around me to see that I lack nothing. I have a roof over my head, food in my tummy, parents that loves me, a sometime annoying brother, great friends, I HAVE THIS BLOG and last but not least, I ALSO HAVE GOD. Things that money will never be able to buy, so why are we attach to money so much? I believe that greed is in us in one form or another. I'm truly working on this to find balance between my needs and wants. My mom says it all the time! "Needs and Wants two different things!" All I can say is that it's work in progress. I had a little bit of money and I felt call to train myself to give with a joyful heart. So I gave a portion of what I had and it felt good. My goal is that you find your calling in becoming selfless and generous. Generous in all aspect of your life. Generous of your time, generous of your love. To show compassion and kindness to whoever God's put on your path. Because in the end, your are not only serving that human being but God himself. 

 In the bible The Lord says to take care of the orphans many times. Here's all the verses I could find with that message. Something amazing happened as I was working on this blog and doing my research reading verses and writing them down to share with all of you. I went to church Sunday and to my surprise that was the subject covered by my Pastor!!! What? Seriously?Coincidence? Or maybe just AFFIRMATION that I'm on the right path sharing this with all of you. So, yes I choose affirmation because of my faith in my Mighty God. He knows me perfectly, he knows that I lack confidence and doubt myself way too much! I struggle, I wonder if what I did was the right thing or if I should've done things differently. So, yes, thank you God! I needed this. I truly believe that God sends you messages in different ways....and on that Sunday morning, it was His way to talk to me, to give me the thumbs up! Truly Amazing! So back to those verses...

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Psalm 68:5

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Psalm 10:14

But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 82:3

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Isaiah 58:7

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Job 31:16-18

"If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,  if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless--  but from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my birth I guided the widow--

Acts 20:35

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.

I hope you enjoyed those verses and that they spoke to you. As we are working hard to better ourselves everyday we must be careful that we do help others because it is the right thing to do and not because we are seeking attention and praises from others. If we do great actions with the wrong intentions we did nothing. I think Matthew explains it better than I do.

Matthew 6:1-4

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

So let's make it clear that I'm not seeking praises! I don't deserve them. I'm a child of God who working hard to obey and spread the word like He asked me to. I stumble, I fail at times but I'm always learning and growing in my faith.

John 14:15-21

"If you love me, you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

Back to Nathalie and Sie, I feel bless to have this opportunity to help, to pray for them, to send them package and letters. Excited to receive letters from them. Researching their country, their customs. Watching youtube videos of their country. I'm learning so much! Like I said the experience is so rewarding. I get so much in return for giving. When watching videos of their country, I also realize how comfortable my life is and I have that burning desire to one day be able to go on a mission trip. Maybe then, I will feel call to become a missionary. Only God knows whats in store for me.

Deuteronomy 14:28-29

At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns,  so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Esther 2:7

Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.

Psalm 10:18

defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

I want to end this blog with a prayer so we can all pray together, united as one.

Dear God,

How great and mighty you are! Thank you for the gift of life! 

Help us to be thankful for the things we have.

Help us to be attentive to your voice, when you are calling us.

Help us to be vigilant and faithful 

To obey you with a joyful heart.

Help us to be selfless and loving to others, to love the unloveable

To show compassion and kindness to those you carefully put on our path

And to be generous with our time, with our hands, with our possessions.

In the name of your precious son Jesus,

Amen

If you are looking into a well known non-profit organization that you can trust. I recommend the one my family use: http://www.compassion.com/default.htm

And here's a picture of our 2 adorable children that we sponsor. Nathalie and Sie.