One woman in a wheel chair was basically buried in her home by a continual clothing drive she managed for close to two decades. She did it to help the impoverished children in her neighborhood. They considered her Grandma. Notably, she was a black woman who helped children of ALL ethnicity's, not just her own.
This is the work that many are called to do. To live unselfishly, to use what one has as it wasn't their own. To die to oneself and what one thinks their life SHOULD be. I can't imagine that this woman anticipated her life as an old lady to be living in a home, surrounded by clothes and toys and dust and clutter as she maneuvered around in her wheel chair on one little pathway from front door to the living room, to kitchen and barely into the bathroom.
This generous outfit was conducted even without a good income. She was dependent herself and still gave up the few comforts she had to keep these needed items stocked in her home.
But there is never too little with the Lord. He will provide and "make it work together for good, to those that are called according to His purpose." He will tie up the loose ends and straighten out the crooked parts. No good effort goes unrewarded. He WILL throw you a bone if you are lost or weak, or wanting, but an effort has to be made.
I have prayed hard and asked Him for a better attitude when it comes to opening my home to others. My husband (we will call him Scott ;) has a flooring business and we've hosted out of town flooring buddies of his so that he can maintain a reliable crew and hopefully help his friends make some needed cash. Those instances were beneficial mostly for my husband and I because it provided inexpensive labor and an on the spot crew. In that sense, there is little to complain about except for the loss of my personal comfort and privacy as I was the only woman/hermit in the house and we had some bachelor type issues to sort out that made me extremely uncomfortable. But this made me step up and exercise my need to break my fear of confrontation and slap down some house rules while they lived with us. One didn't survive but the other became a friend. :)
Now we have the opportunity to help a friend of Scott's that has found himself to be a single dad with two toddler girls in need of a stable home and assistance so they can get back on their feet.
It has been only 3 weeks and I have been blessed greatly. I've seen my imperfections , and I don't like them, but I am encouraged because I also see the work he's already done in me and in my family over the years and He's taken us a long way from where we were, even in the last three weeks!
Getting back to a simple unselfish giving life is a life of passion and blessing, pain and joy. It's alive!!! I see dead families come in to eat at my tables every night I work. (I have been a part time waitress at Outback Steakhouse for 12 years now.) Nobody smiles nobody talks, it's like the only thing they have in common is eating. I've noticed that if my tables are having an exceptionally good time together, they don't care if the food comes out late. They are content and enjoying each other, living in the moment.
I hope to see myself, Scott, and the boys when they are teenagers; talking and joking and having a great time together. I've seen this at my tables too, people! I'm a witness! Hallelujah! :D
Children are a driving tool God uses to better believing parents for the kingdom. They are THE responsibility, THE first commandment. "Be fruitful and multiply." Genesis 1:28 "Women will be saved through child bearing." I Timothy 2 :15
I want to keep my marriage happy so my children can learn to have a happy marriage too. I want to be emotionally and mentally mature to help them become the solid, responsible adults they need to be. I want them to choose Christ as the example, introducing them to Him by being the best example of Him, that I can be. This is my legacy.
This is HIS legacy.
Mark 10:14 Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
More Scripture Father keeps comforting me with:
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD'S purpose that prevails.
And we know that all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose.
I Corinthians 7 :29-31
What I mean brothers is that the time is short. From now on, those who have wives should live as those who have none, those who mourn, as they did not;those who are happy, as if they were not; those who would buy something as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. For this world in it's present form is passing away.
Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
I Timothy 2:15
But women will be saved through childbearing---if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Matthew 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Jeremiah 29:11
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