Counting Our Blessings

I've had plenty of time the think over the past week or two, which inevitably means I'm going to attempt to put those thoughts into some sort of order on a computer screen. And this time, I thought it was important enough to share with you.

If you're reading this blog, you have access to the internet, whether at home, on your phone, or somewhere like Starbucks or the library. If you're reading this blog, you are, statistically speaking, likely to be American and middle class. You might be a friend from grad school (well educated!) or a participant in the world of quilting blogs.

And if you are any of these things, you are, like me, so blessed. You might have a great job and a beautiful home and plenty of extra money for that gorgeous piece of fabric you've had your eye on for a while. You might be out of work, and struggling a bit to make ends meet in this difficult economy. But we still have so much--so many blessings to be thankful for.

I hate to speak in "Christianese," but I don't know a better way of phrasing this. Recently, God has put it on my heart (and the mister's) to have more of a global perspective. To stop focusing so much on what we have or don't have, to look beyond what's right under our noses.

Now, obviously, we can't solve world hunger on our own. We can't adopt every orphan child. But we can do something. So we started by sponsoring two preschoolers in the Dominican Republic. For the cost of a dinner out, we can help feed, clothe, and educate a little boy or girl for a month.

Our church has an outreach to the homeless in our community. There aren't many school-age children in the program, but there are a few. So we picked a name and I used some of this month's quilting money to buy school supplies for a little 2nd grader who loves Tinkerbell. It's not much, honestly. As a quilter, I can say that it equates to about four yards of fabric. But it means so much to that child, to her family who can barely afford to eat, much less buy school supplies.

I'm not trying to get preachy, or to say that going out to eat or splurging on fabric is bad--not at all! But many of us lament to our friends and family about what's going on in the world, or yell on the internet about how bad things are. Doesn't it make more sense to put our money where our mouth is? To say, "I can't fix everything, but I can help out a child in need. Just one child." Or maybe there's another organization whose goals you support that you can give the cost of a Starbucks drink to--just once a week, or once a month.

I've certainly gotten used to my middle-class luxuries: a working car, air conditioning, an expensive hobby, etc. And I'll be the first to say I would be really, really sad if I had to give them up. But we're not supposed to hoard our blessings. That $32 a month to sponsor a child does them so much more good than it does me. It makes almost no difference to our budget. It's one dinner out. A couple yards of fabric. But (and please excuse me for being a little overdramtic here) it could change a child's life. Make the difference between malnutrition and health.

Maybe you are one of those who has been drastically affected by the economic downturn, and you're glaring at me for my presumption in writing all this. So you don't have extra money to send somewhere--no one is judging you, least of all me! But do you have time? An hour or two a week? Is there an organization you could volunteer for? A soup kitchen you could visit? I'll be honest, I'm really bad at this--it's easier for me to give money than time. And that's something I'm still working on.

I haven't quite managed to wrap up my thoughts to a satisfactory conclusion (my mother, a research writing teacher, would be so disappointed in me!) so I'll just leave with this--if you are interested in sponsoring a child overseas and don't know where to start, you can check out Children of the Nations or World Vision--they both are doing amazing things.