Purpose.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matthew 18:5


Some people spend their entire lives trying to figure out why God put them on this earth, and never find the answer. Or, well, in my opinion, they don't work hard enough to figure it out. God usually puts that kind of stuff right in our faces and it's up to us to pray about it and then recognize the signs. I recognized them several years back while attending a Women of Faith conference. I was a couple of years out of high school, and so naturally I didn't want to go. I thought it was going to be some boring Holy Rolling 2 day sermon that I would barely stay awake through. Pretty sure my dad said I HAD to go..To which I was not happy about, but I went. To my surprise it was a most entertaining event. About midway through the second day, they showed a video on the big screen for a child sponsorship program called World Vision.

That was it. I found my purpose.

Once the video was over I rushed to the WV booth and chose my first sponsored child. A young girl from the Philippines. The next year, I added another girl from Africa. No, no, sponsoring children through Christian programs is not my calling from God. I know for a very specific fact that my purpose in life, the REASON I was born to this Earth, is to love and help children in any way I can.

And so you might ask, "How will I know why God has put me here?"...Listen to your heart! What tugs at you when you see/hear it? If you could choose what you would do, if given the chance to do ONE thing with unlimited resources to help someone. What would it be? For me, it is adoption. Perhaps, it is appropriate then, that I was an adopted child myself.

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day after reading a friend's Blog about her journey through the process of adopting not one, but two children from Africa. It only makes sense. My God given purpose in life to do what I can to help children (most specifically my life-long desire to adopt) and being adopted myself. God must have (duh) designed my life to be so, in order for me to best use this purpose. I mean, who better to be a parent to an adopted child then someone who was herself adopted!!? Not saying that someone who wasn't adopted wouldn't make a good adoptive parent though, so don't misunderstand that. I'm just saying, for myself in my journey that is what I think.

I think the calling to help helpless and orphaned children is something that everyone needs to take an answer to. The bible says:

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James 1:27

Take a few minutes to think about that verse and really let it resonate you. God may have not called you to adopt a child but there are other ways to help. Send a box of clothing to an orphanage over seas. Mentor a foster child. Donate money to a family in the midst of raising money to bring a child home.

I prayed the other night...I was feeling a bit guilty that I wasn't sure if I was being selfish wanting to wait until I was done having biological children before we decided on the adoption route. I asked God if I was ignoring something I shouldn't be. If I should be looking deeper into this now. After I while I felt a peace come over the guilt and I knew that it was Him telling me that now isn't the time. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps the child that has been destined for us hasn't been concieved yet, who knows. But I do know that I am ready when the time comes, and I am listening and waiting, ready to follow the leader...and we all know who THAT is!!

And so, I will leave you with a few things to think about. One is: Find out what your purpose in life is and make the choice to participate. You have NO idea how fulfilling it is to take part in the thing you were born to do.

Second is some global stats on the orphan crisis in this world. I will admit living in my little bubble of the USA (no matter how hard things are here, we have NO true idea how privileged we are) I really had no idea the grand scale of things....
*There are between 143-210 MILLION orphans in the world today (to give you a perspective, the current US population is just over 310 million)
*Every year, 42,000 more children become orphans
*Each night 60 million orphans go to bed hungry, and
*Each year, 400,000 of them die due to malnutrition. (that's every 90 seconds)

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:12