Tonight, after our usual family devotions, we began discussing how each of our children could use the challenges in their lives to help others. Now, granted, in our family we run the gamut of challenges--from death of a sibling...to adoption...to physical special needs...to past abuse.
This is an important seed to plant in our children's hearts (and our own); and we all have had individual struggles and challenges that others have as well.
Toward the end of the discussion, I mentioned to our youngest daughter (who was adopted from Guatemala as a baby), that she might one day go back to Guatemala to help people there. She replied with 9-year-old wisdom, "I can go teach people like my birth mom to read." I had told her that the girls in Guatemala only go to school for a couple of years, if that; and that her birth mother was illiterate. We went around the room and each of our four kids prayed. Her prayer was that the she could go to Guatemala when she is a grown up and teach the women that they are just as important as the men, and help the girls to go to school and learn to read.
Did I forget to mention that reading doesn't come easily for her? She has dyslexia. However, she knows that she is blessed to live in a country where education is freely available for all children--no matter their gender.
And one day when she is grown, I pray that she does board a plane to her homeland. And that little girls with chocolate-brown eyes and raven black hair will learn that they are precious and valuable.
How can you use the hard things in your life to encourage others and bring them closer to Christ?
How have you been encouraged by others during your challenging times?
Make a list of the challenges you have overcome--the mountains God has moved in your life--and pray that He will give you opportunities to come in contact with others who might need a word of encouragement.
Here's some of mine so far: infertility, infidelity of a spouse (not this marriage!), adoption, abuse, divorce, remarriage, blended families, step parenting, parenting a child with special needs, parenting a child with RAD, parenting a child who's been abused, etc, etc.
God is good. He brings us through. He invites us to walk on water, with our eyes focusing solely on Him.
And then, we can encourage others who are walking the same path.
