Life with us ~ The Wandering Workentins

Day 10: Mission: Possible

VERSE:“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 ESV

READ: Matthew 5:13-16

EXCERPT: When you choose to keep going even when you want to wave the white flag, it speaks volumes to the value of Christ in your life. When you get up one more stinkin’ time, when it would be so much easier to stay stuck in the mud, it screams, “He is worth it!” to the world.

GRACE IN ACTION: Today, it’s time to focus on how you can tell others about the goodness of God! This need not involve how you eat (but it could). The idea is simply to get our eyes off our plates and onto the harvest.

As I read over this lesson it hit close to home…as we made the decision to leave A Kid’s Place we were filled with ambivalent feelings: we loved working with most of the kids, the basic things that a mama and papa do ~ cook dinner, make sure they have full tummies, they are loved, get taken to the park or out roller skating but the hard stuff was the name calling that we endured day in and day out. Yes we know the kids we worked with came from “hard places” and faced struggles that some people never could even think about. Yet, in reality don’t we all come from hard places. Don’t we all face struggles in life. One of the things we tried to express to the kids we have cared for over the years is that just because yesterday was a hard day doesn’t mean tomorrow has to be has difficult. The bottom line has to do with choices we make with the knowledge we glean over our lives.

As we were preparing to leave AKP I felt like we were giving up, we were “jumping ship” or running away. We would have loved to be there for years, celebrating achievements like birthdays and graduations. But sometimes we have to ask ourselves am what I am doing doing any good? am I really making a difference? Our mission has always been to love the kids the Lord brought into our lives and to give them tools to learn how to make good choices and to be proud of who they were. And to have hope for the future!

So we made a tough decision ~ to move on, to make a healthy choice for us, for our lives. It’s like I’ve been learning about food they are neither good nor bad they just are. So the decision we made to leave AKP was not good or bad it was what it was. And our hearts are heavy as leave behind some precious little ones but we put their lives in the hands of the Lord, praying that the right people will come into their lives to continue to show them God’s love. And we will continue to pray for each of them as well.

And just like we have tried to teach all the little’s that have been in our care we move forward, knowing that each day is a new day and God’s mercies are new each day and we start fresh each day seeking where the Lord would have us to be and have us to go wherever that might be.

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Have you ever thought about all the people who you have come into contact with over the years?
How something you said or did may have affected them?
As you start each new day, do you wonder how you can have an impact on someone?