The Poem of a Child
Living
is like flying a
kite. There is a beginning and an
end to the journey and
lots of obstacles will try to stop
you. But I will
never turn back. My self-confidence will never
end. It
shall pick me up when I fall and give me
strength so I can finish the journey.
My 10 year old, Emma, showed me this poem. It is word for word the way she wrote it. I cried when she read it to me. The depth of it touched my heart and spoke to me of a child who knows she is valuable, she matters and she is able. It spoke to me of hope, and a bright future. It told me that all of the times I have said, "God made you special. He loves you and wouldn't change a hair on your head. You matter to the one who created the Heavens and the Earth." She listened.
I was reminded of a message from our Pastor. He spoke of the shooting at Virginia Tech where a young man went into the Science area and opened fire killing many innocents and then himself. He had released tapes to the news, and in them he said he did it so he would matter. Pastor went on to say that he couldn't help but wonder if this boy had been told the message of Christ's love for us, and His gift of salvation things might have turned out differently.
I thought of all the kids who come out to BG Club, many of whom do not go to church. Every single one of those kids gets told that they matter. They matter to us, they matter to God. They matter so much to God that He sent His only Son, Jesus to die for them. That's the kind of love we tell these kids they are worthy of. That's the kind of love that inspires the self-confident hope that I saw in Emma's poem.
Lord, I am honored to be used by You to reach these lives and tell them You love them. Such a simple yet powerful message. Life changing. Please let this sink in to their minds and hearts. Let it affect their actions now and for the rest of their lives. Thank-you for the chance to make a difference.
Faith Girl
You can also find the same post at Belinda's Whatever He Says blog in it's original form. JC
2 comments:
Leading a ministry is tough sledding and not for the faint of heart. Because you never get to see the finished product (assuming we know what a 'finished product' looks like) you wonder if you're making a difference in these little ones. In your daughter Emma's case you did. In the lives of those other unrelated children you won't unless you see them again 10 or 20 years down the road. The sad reality for some of these kids is that when they finish BG club they may not darken another church door for years. Yet you know you've planted a seed in their heart that the Devil can't uproot. And therein lies the victory.
Out of the mouths of babes, how uplifting you have a gifted child there Faith girl.
Its the little things like this help restore my own faith and give me hope for humanity.
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