Rebuked By A Teenager

This is from the newsletter of Lisa Kjeldgaard. I shared her amazing ideas for raising kiddos with a heart for orphans a while back and this story, from her 14 year old daughter Kate, is the fruit of Lisa's hard work.

Be prepared to get rebuked by a teenager.

(And then pray that your kids would have this girls heart. At least that's what I'll be doing)

"I look around. I catch myself complaining, again. Whining because a brother used MY bathroom. Upset that I have to get out of my bed to go to work at 9 a.m. when I'd rather sleep. Bummed I didn't make it to the movies last night with my friends because I can't drive. This is normal American life: Be upset about what you don't have, and forget about what you do.

We don't seem to care about what we have. All we seem to care about is what we don't have.

But. We. Are. So. Blessed.

Running water? Blessed. House? Blessed. A job? Blessed. Three meals a day? Blessed. We seem to notice our idiotic mundane problems but forget the little boy half way across the world on the streets: abused, addicted, starving, and homeless. Let's face it—our "problems" are wimpy.

God put you where you are for a reason, and he put that little boy on the streets of Kenya for a reason too. You could be that homeless Kenyan boy, but you're not. You're a rich middle-class American with EVERYTHING you could ever need.

EVERYTHING.

God wants you and me to do something with it.

Here's what this 14-year-old learned in Kenya:

"Life isn't about what you don't have, life's about what you do have, and what you can give."

If those Agape Kenyan boys pretended to be us whiners and just focused on what they didn't have: how they don't have toilets, don't have soda and might not see their parents ever again, they would never get anywhere. Yet, they don't.

They wake up and say: "I'm off the streets and know I'll eat, I'll live."

We deserve a slap in the face from those boys, because they, they know what they have. And they're doing everything they can to change the world with it. More than anything, I want to go back to Kenya to learn from those boys. Don't worry, I'll be back to tell you about it. ~Kate