While writing last week’s post, I came across a verse that reminded me to be purposeful in my actions…
1 John 3:18 “Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
Earlier last week Todd [a missionary to China and a friend of ours] sent out a newsletter from His Feet International. The newsletter came with 3 pictures, each of a little girl from an orphanage in China. [He and his family are in the process of adopting one of the little girls.] My kiddos had question after question about these little girls. Over dinner one night, we sat and tried as best we could, to answer those questions. “Why don’t they have a family?” “Who tucks them into bed at night?” “How do they have money to eat?” “Why would someone not want those babies?” Ugh. Some of those were easier to answer than others. A few of them I answered with tears in my eyes…and at the end of it all, my kiddos wanted to know which one we were bringing home to live with our family. When I answered, “None right now, unless God would tell us to…” the next set of questions started…and all boiled down to this: “What can we do to show love to these little girls?”
And this is where “our response” all started!! I had been wanting to buy a sewing machine for over a year and had never made it a high enough priority to put it in the budget. But now I knew I had to. I searched for a beginners machine, read all the reviews online and bought my very first Singer. Amazon had a great price, and 2 days later I had the thing sitting right in front of me…staring me down. I had no clue where to even begin. So, I read the manual…quite a few times…got everything in place and began to teach myself how to sew. [Pinterest was a HUGE help, and so was the lady from the Singer 1-800 number for sewing problems!! lol]
That night around the dinner table we all decided we were going to sew blankets for those little girls, and send them with Todd to China. Homemade, with lots of love and lots of prayer going into every stitch. My kids were super excited. Even my oldest, a boy, who I was a little nervous might not be so excited about sewing! But, I was wrong…and he can’t wait to learn.
As I take the next few months and really learn how to sew, [they offer online courses for free & the Lord sent me a friend through church who is a seamstress and offered to teach me too] the kiddos are anxiously awaiting summer…which is when we will take the time and love and make these special blankets. They may not be the best or the prettiest you’ve ever seen, BUT…they are going to be made with a whole lot of love!!!…teaching our family how to serve and love and be purposeful about loving through our “actions“.
Let me just say…none of this has anything to do with doing more, or striving to be better, or doing good works to get into Heaven. But it IS all about the heart. When we love Jesus, we love His people…all of them, and we want to do things that show His love. And this is one of many ways…hands on… our family can serve people we may never meet in person. And to be honest, if you have kids… as they grow up, their view of people, and of the world, will be largely based on the opportunities they have had to serve someone else other than themselves. To serve like Jesus did. To love like Jesus did. And this, is one of our families’ responses…sewing blankets that, we pray, will touch many hearts for eternity.
1 John 3:16-18 - "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."