In our family we spend a lot of time talking together – about silly things, serious things, school things and fun things – but my all time favorite things are heart things. One of my favorite things about being a mommy is the sweet heart-to-heart times that happen - sometimes unexpectedly - catching me off guard with such sweetness.
Long drives are perfect for sharing hearts; if you can get used to talking over the masses riding in the back of our big church bus, that is. As we drove to Atlanta on Thursday, Blake and I got to talking about the millions of orphans that will be effected by this week’s change in Ethiopian adoption policy….Okay, seriously ya’ll. Blake is 14 years old. He didn’t bring this topic up; I did. He would rather have discussed whether or not I’m going to allow him to use my Verizon upgrade to get an iPhone. On this day, however, he was a good sport and participated in my little heart-to-heart anyway.
How’s this for a mommy-to-teen conversations starter? “Blake, what do you think you would do if you were walking down the street and happened upon a group of orphaned children? Do you think you could keep walking, knowing they were in desperate need, and leave them without a family or anyone to care for them?” OF COURSE NOT!!!...I knew he would answer that way. Our hearts are moved to love as Jesus loves, and we – he - would have been compelled to do something, anything, to help them.
As our conversation deepened we talked about how orphaned children, with bare feet and distended bellies, battling HIV and starvation, are just not something you see everyday where we live. Here, in our town, in most every place we’ve ever been in America, we could go days, weeks, months or maybe forever (if we chose to) without seeing the abject poverty of the orphaned children we’ve learned about living in places like Africa, Ukraine, India, and Brazil. We talked about how orphans here in America might look a little different from those in other countries and about how they’re not as visible to us where we are and about how they’re still without a family.
This is where the beautiful heart – the heart like Jesus – comes in. Blake, at 14 and still so young, revealed the truth as he knows it. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t make us any less obligated to take care of them. Oh, how my heart was thanking the Lord that my son gets it…that if we know, we must do something, anything. We can’t just do nothing!
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. – James 1:27
Love talks like these!!! Those 2 hours just FLEW BY! I’m so glad that what matters to the Lord matters to my child! Love it!!
My day got even sweeter when my precious Tater Bug snuggled up to me on the couch and brought me to tears with the sweetest, most unexpected words. “Mommy, one day, when I adopt a little boy from China…or maybe I’ll adopt him from Ukraine, I don’t know…I’m going to bring him right home and feed him a cheeseburger.” I know it’s probably not the most profound something anyone has ever said…and I have no idea why it involves a cheeseburger….but did you notice my Tate said, “when” and not “if”? His precious heart for orphans was revealed to me in just a few simple words, and I might have missed it if I hadn’t been listening closely. I asked Tate how he knew he was going to adopt one day. He looked puzzled for a minute and then said, “Why wouldn’t I? God told us to take care of the orphans.” In his little heart, he is already willing to answer the call to care for orphans and he’s not even grown yet. Exciting stuff, my son! Rock on!
In you the orphan finds mercy….Hosea 14:3
I must have hit the heart-to-heart payload Thursday, because as I was tucking Reagan into bed, his sweet words brought unexpected tears to my eyes. Lately he’s been talking a lot about what it was like in Russia. Some memories are good, but some things hurt to talk about, like the “brothers” [his friends] that we didn’t bring home with us. “They don’t have good mommies at all and they don’t know about Jesus”, he said...WHAT’S A MOMMY TO DO WITH THAT…And then as I kissed him goodnight, he said in his adorable Russian accented English, “Mommy, I am here for you to love me, yes?” Yes, my son. I am here to love you and for you to break my heart with your gorgeous blue eyes and sweet heart that already loves Jesus enough to pray everyday for your “brothers” in Russia.
God sets the lonely in families…Psalm 6:86
I’m sure any mommy would agree; some days can be really hard. But on this particular night, as I lay my head down to sleep, my heart was so full of gratitude, love and wonder – Oh, how He loves us!
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