When Helping Hurts

Last year I read the book When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. It has really changed my perspective on poverty is ways that I am still just now discovering. This book has helped Tim and I have a better grasp on why we need to help alleviate poverty and how to do it in a way that is honoring to God and values the people we are trying to help. This book is great at describing how people who are suffering from poverty think about themselves and the world around them. I really like the description of how the fall of man has affected our different relationships.

I have to admit that up until a few years ago I served the poor and gave money out of obedience to God. While I cared for the people I was helping, I didn't understand that what I was doing could end up dishonoring them and making them feel worse than before. I also admit that much of my work was done with a bit of a god complex. I was deigning to go out of my way to help someone. Instead I should have realized that I had no right to see these people as less than me. By swooping in and saving the day with my time and money I thought I could save someone single handedly (obviously my pride got in the way, but I am using a bit of hyperbole). As you know, this is wrong since only God is the great provider. My attitude kept me from acknowledging His work in me and those He used me to help. Praise God, that I have been saved from those selfish ways.

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about missions work. It is a quick read and is easy to understand. Here is the like to the website created for WHH.

Giving Thanks

After taking down all our Christmas decorations, I finally took down the tree of thanks our family made this November. Some of the leaves were funny like when we decided that the thing J was most thankful for was his feet. Of course we also had the Sunday school answers like God and Jesus. Here are some of the unique responses the boys gave when I asked them what they were thankful for:

S (3yo): Aha
The Moon
Green Mountain

R (5yo): Our baby
Crafts
Reading

You can see that S tends to be our dreamer while R is more practical!

Cookbooks

I'm in the middle of reading a book called The Table Comes First. It's the history of food and why we eat the way we eat. So far it's been about how the idea of a restaurant came about and why recipes exist. I can't wait to read the rest of it. I'm more of a fiction girl but this book is pretty good.

The recipe didn't even come on the scene until the late 19th century because before that cooking was a skill that was passed down from parent to child or from cook to apprentice. I've been thinking a lot lately about how to pass down some family traditions on to my kids. This book is inspiring me to collect recipes that are a part of our family life. I'm hoping that by the time they leave home I will have had time to write stories to go along with these recipes so they know why they are so important. This seems to be a good way to chronicle our family history since most of our memories seem to center around food. Tim and I cooked a lot when we were dating. I craved different things with each baby. Each boy has different favorite foods that they like best.

I'm back

After a four month hiatus, I'm back! My baby J is now 4 months old! Thank God for a quick and safe delivery. He was 9 lbs 7oz when he was born and now he is over 16 lbs. Lets just say he is a very healthy baby.

This baby has given me so much joy. I can't tell you how much he has added to our family. He wakes up in the morning smiling. Though he is serious like his daddy, he is also pretty easy going. He loves his brothers and wants to be with them all the time. I have a feeling he's going to learn to walk and crawl much faster than the others because he wants to keep up.

Adjusting to three kids has been a trial, but it's not as hard as I thought it would be. I think adjusting to a second child was much harder. We are all getting used to a new rhythm of life.

And now we wait...

Well, the baby was breech until sometime Monday night. He finally decided to flip at 38 and a half weeks! So now we just wait for him to come out on his own. I'm so relieved that I don't have a c-section looming over my head.

memory verse

I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.

- Ecclesiastes 3:14

Suffering

This week a friend of mine prayed for my soon to be born third son to be a Joseph. She spoke of how he was a leader to his brothers. He was also a Godly man who helped lead Egypt in a time of crisis. He knew how to forgive, he was full of wisdom, he loved his own sons...there are just so many great qualities about him. As she prayed, I eagerly yearned for those same things for my little guy.

The thing that made Joseph so great was that he knew how to suffer. Throughout his life he had many horrible things happen to him. Without these things he never would have risen to a position that was just below the Pharaoh. God's hand was on him from the beginning through all of those hardships and misunderstandings. Not once does the Bible say that Joseph threw up his hands in anger yelling at God about how unfair life was. He just suffered through it.

This story drives home for me the importance of teaching my boys how to suffer. Life is not fair and there is always going to be some suffering. I want them to learn that it's okay to suffer, that good comes from suffering and they will grow from it. I want for them to run to God when suffering comes and not away from Him. I also want them to know how to suffer with others when they are going through tough times.

This is a hard thing for me to want for my boys, but the fruit that will come from it will be worth it in the end.