What The Disabled Taught Me

Two of my sisters, my grandmother, and I were blessed to be able to serve at a camp for people with special needs called Joni and friends family camp a couple of weeks ago. I went with the intention of blessing others, but I was the one who was blessed by the experience. The lessons I learned while being there were priceless! 

Every Good Thing

One thing that I became increasingly aware of was the fact that everything we have is a gift from God!

I discovered that I had thought of my mental and physical abilities as things that were rightfully mine. I did not realize that God did not have to give me the abilities that He would be totally fair in not giving them to me. As I spent time with the blind, the crippled, and the mute I realized that the things I thought were my right were really a gift.  I did not earn them, and God had no obligation to me, but he gave me everything that I have. The only reason I can speak, see, reason, hear, walk, read, eat, breath, or do anything is because God has given me that gift. Some of the people had feeding tubes and had never eaten anything orally. I realized that even something as simple as eating an ice cream cone is a gift from God! James 1:17 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." God does not give us all the same gifts, but we are each given gifts. We must realize that they are from God and praise Him for them. I learned thankfulness.

Helpless

There were two twin brothers who were both in wheel chairs there. They had such bad seizures that they could not even be in a room with ceiling fans because the motion triggered their seizures. These two boys could do absolutely nothing for themselves and were dependant on others to everything for them. I thought, "How sad. They must feel so helpless!" It was then that I realized that all people are dependant on someone else for everything. We are all dependant on God For everything, some of us just do not know we need Him. Hebrews 1:3a says,"And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power." We are all helpless and our only hope is to call out to God for mercy.

No Room For Boasting

Over the week I was brought face to face with my ugly pride. I realized that if everything I had was a gift, then all the things my pride had stood on were crumbling. My academic achievements were only possible because God had given me a capable brain. My physical achievements were only  possible because God had given me a capable body. I can do nothing without Him! Romans 3:27a " Where then is boasting? It is excluded." I learned that there is simply no room for boasting. 

Valuable

There was one boy at camp who everybody knew and loved. His name was Judson, but everyone called him Juddy. His entire face was always absorbed in a smile. He could not do anything else, but his joy was contagious! I realized that I placed so much of my value and other's value in our abilities. I realized that I had been selfish in my relationships, seeking to gain rather than to give. True love is giving of ones self freely to benefit another. There were other children there who were moody and did not have pleasant dispositions. These children caused me to examine my own motives in serving. I had a choice to make, to love or not love. It is easy to love people with pleasant dispositions or people who are talented. The true test of our love is if we love those who have nothing to offer us back and who are not grateful. I learned that we should value people not because of what they can do or even who they are, but because they are valuable to God.

I hope to be able to serve at this camp again, and I am so thankful for the lessons God taught me! God used the disabled to enabled me to see my own disabilities and weaknesses. We are all disabled in some way or another, we all have special needs, and we all need a Savior! 

The Gift

I Was Reading...
I was reading first Corinthians and came across 1 Corinthians 7:34-35 which says, "The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord." 

Made Me Think
This passage caused me to examine myself. I asked myself, "What am I concerned with right now in my single years?" I think it is easy not to be concerned with holiness and the things of the Lord. It is not hard to get caught up in the things of the world, our appearances, our plans, our jobs, our schoolwork and many other things. We may even get caught in the trap of discontentment because we aren't married and we would like to be. There are so many things you can concern yourself with. You can spend your time while you are unmarried in so many ways. The question is how will you spend your time?

The Subtle Lie
Disney always writes the same love story. The princess falls in love with someone, marries him, and they live happily ever after. The movies always end right after the princesses married. If disney were reality, we could conclude that our lives will be fulfilled when we get married and happily ever after starts when you say, "I do." Life does not begin when you meet prince charming. Satan want's us to wait around for prince charming so that we will be distracted and discontent. He wants us to focus on anything other than Christ (even if it's something good like marriage). 

We are princesses of THE KING though and we must further His kingdom. Christ is our prince who gave his life to rescue us from the evil dragon, Satan. This is not just a fairy-tale love story; It is a true love story. True contentment is found in loving our lover with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

The Gift  
A few verses before these verses, Paul refers to both marriage and singleness a gift 1 Corinthians 7:7 says, "Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that." If you are single, God has given you that gift!

 Singleness is not a curse but a blessing. God may choose to give you the gift of marriage some day, but if you are not content with what God has given you now, you will not be content with what He gives you later. Enjoy the gift God has given you rather than wishing you had another gift! You are able to serve the Lord in unique ways that married people cannot, and married people are able to serve in ways that single people can not. 

You can trust that God has your best in mind! His plans are greater than anything we could create. His plans may include trails, pain, and difficulties, but they will bring us closer to Him and make us more like Christ. Do not waste the gift God has given you! Trust that God is working all things together for your good!

Unfathomable Riches

Our family bought some land in the country and we plan to build our house on it. We have been clearing the pasture, cleaning out the old barns, and preparing the house site. As I took a wheelbarrow of sticks to one of the enormous piles of trees that we cleared, the wind blew a small speck of something into my eye. I rubbed my eye and blinked, but it would not come out. I made my way to our van with one eye half open. My other eye was instinctively closing because of the speck, and I could not open it. We poured Visine in my eye, and the speck would not move. It was a tiny barb that was embedded on the inside of my top eyelid. My mom drove to a nearby friend's house, and she tried to use a Q-tip and even a baby spoon to remove it. It would not budge though, so she took me to the clinic where my grandmother works. All the way there, I kept my eyes shut and did not move them so that it would not hurt. I was very thankful when my grandmother successfully removed it!

I was thinking about the whole story though, and it made me realize that often, all I can think about are the tiny things that are causing me discomfort such as that speck. So often, I will focus on the small things that I do not like, and I forget to praise God for the many ways He has blessed me. We truly have to look harder to complain than to give thanks. God has blessed us with unfathomable riches in Christ (Eph. 3:8). We have been forgiven every debt we have ever owed! We have been given the right to be called children of God! Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ! WHAT IS THERE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT? When we remember what God has done for us, it puts our trials into perspective!  Our sufferings are nothing compared to His! We no longer have to face the wrath of God because Christ bore all God's wrath for those who have faith in Him! Do you have a "speck" in your eye? What are you focusing on? Let us praise God for the unfathomable riches He has blessed us with in Christ! 

Who Do We Give Thanks to at Thanksgiving?

The Giver of all good gifts! God! God is the one we should acknowledge for everything we have. We should thank Him every day, not just on Thanksgiving!