Writer's Workshop
Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop is pretty amazing. I haven't written one or followed for a long time (my bad), but I know it's great and fun and wonderful (especially for me who sometimes has a very hard time coming up with blog material). Click on the link to check it out for yourself.
The topic I chose for today is...
1.) Somebody I'm praying for....
is one of the boys that live here in our home, S (I'll keep his real name hidden to protect him). Now, if you haven't been following me (and I don't blame you...I'm sorry it's boring a lot), I am currently residing and working at a group home-type facility. It's not a lockdown place or anything; the kids that live here have a relative amount of freedom to come and go as they have privileges.
Anyway, this boy, S, has had a really hard life. He is the product of a rape and he knows it. I'm not sure how this information was revealed to him and it saddens me to no end that he knows that's why he was conceived. It sounds as though his mom tried to take good care of him; he speaks fondly of her (although a lot of the kids here seem to have distorted memories and fantasies about their parents). Then when he was younger, he was repeatedly molested by an uncle. It's hard in my limited life and wordly experience to comprehend how this happened. Where was his mom? Did he tell her? Did she brush him off? How did this happen once, let alone repeatedly? So many questions I can't answer.
So many questions S can't answer or feels like can't be answered. He is the boy I got to share the gospel with the night before my birthday, so Sunday night. It started out with a question that I can't completely and fully answer: why does God let things happen? Why did that happen to him?
I talked about God wanting us to love Him versus us having to love Him. To have that happen, God gave us free will. But with that free will comes a lot of choices: good or bad. And, unfortunately, so many people chose the bad (because often the bad comes with instant gratification and long-term bad affects). God sometimes chooses to intervene on behalf of His children, sometimes He doesn't. Look at the Israelites when they were in slavery in Egypt. God didn't rescue them right away; they were in slavery for SO long before He went into action with Moses and Aaron. I see that as being similar to S's situation. He was being hurt for a long time, but then someone intervened on His behalf, sending S into the foster system.
Life isn't perfect for him now by any means. But he's come a long way from a bad situation. S still has demons and he has little faith (he claims he has none but I believe he believes in God by the way he talks about Him sometimes). He doesn't understand why he was put in that situaton. I can't explain it completely because I'm not God nor do I understand His Ways all the time.
But I shared with S about God's love (S is also bisexual) for all of His children, be they gay, straight, handicapped, black, white, etc. I did tell him that the Bible does say homosexuality is wrong, but it never says God doesn't love people who are. On the contrary, God loves everyone, each and every single person (you) despite their sins. That doesn't mean He condones them (He doesn't like it when I curse or get angry or when I used to have inappropriate relationships). I told S about Jesus' death and how His perfect blood covered each of my sins and each of his sins. How Jesus has this gift of eternity if only you take that gift (you can't have a gift until you take it, right?) by letting Him have your life. I always put it like this: Jesus gave His Life for me, I want to give my life to Him.
Whether S took this to heart or not, I may never know. I know he was listening. So my prayer is that the seeds sown in his life (by me and others) fall upon good soil. I pray that some day - today, tomorrow, a month or year from now, just some day - S will put his life in the hands of the Lord. This won't necessarily answer all of his questions, but I pray he finds peace with his demons.
I also got to briefly share my faith and the gospel with another resident last night. I pray that fell on good soil, too.
The topic I chose for today is...
1.) Somebody I'm praying for....
is one of the boys that live here in our home, S (I'll keep his real name hidden to protect him). Now, if you haven't been following me (and I don't blame you...I'm sorry it's boring a lot), I am currently residing and working at a group home-type facility. It's not a lockdown place or anything; the kids that live here have a relative amount of freedom to come and go as they have privileges.
Anyway, this boy, S, has had a really hard life. He is the product of a rape and he knows it. I'm not sure how this information was revealed to him and it saddens me to no end that he knows that's why he was conceived. It sounds as though his mom tried to take good care of him; he speaks fondly of her (although a lot of the kids here seem to have distorted memories and fantasies about their parents). Then when he was younger, he was repeatedly molested by an uncle. It's hard in my limited life and wordly experience to comprehend how this happened. Where was his mom? Did he tell her? Did she brush him off? How did this happen once, let alone repeatedly? So many questions I can't answer.
So many questions S can't answer or feels like can't be answered. He is the boy I got to share the gospel with the night before my birthday, so Sunday night. It started out with a question that I can't completely and fully answer: why does God let things happen? Why did that happen to him?
I talked about God wanting us to love Him versus us having to love Him. To have that happen, God gave us free will. But with that free will comes a lot of choices: good or bad. And, unfortunately, so many people chose the bad (because often the bad comes with instant gratification and long-term bad affects). God sometimes chooses to intervene on behalf of His children, sometimes He doesn't. Look at the Israelites when they were in slavery in Egypt. God didn't rescue them right away; they were in slavery for SO long before He went into action with Moses and Aaron. I see that as being similar to S's situation. He was being hurt for a long time, but then someone intervened on His behalf, sending S into the foster system.
Life isn't perfect for him now by any means. But he's come a long way from a bad situation. S still has demons and he has little faith (he claims he has none but I believe he believes in God by the way he talks about Him sometimes). He doesn't understand why he was put in that situaton. I can't explain it completely because I'm not God nor do I understand His Ways all the time.
But I shared with S about God's love (S is also bisexual) for all of His children, be they gay, straight, handicapped, black, white, etc. I did tell him that the Bible does say homosexuality is wrong, but it never says God doesn't love people who are. On the contrary, God loves everyone, each and every single person (you) despite their sins. That doesn't mean He condones them (He doesn't like it when I curse or get angry or when I used to have inappropriate relationships). I told S about Jesus' death and how His perfect blood covered each of my sins and each of his sins. How Jesus has this gift of eternity if only you take that gift (you can't have a gift until you take it, right?) by letting Him have your life. I always put it like this: Jesus gave His Life for me, I want to give my life to Him.
Whether S took this to heart or not, I may never know. I know he was listening. So my prayer is that the seeds sown in his life (by me and others) fall upon good soil. I pray that some day - today, tomorrow, a month or year from now, just some day - S will put his life in the hands of the Lord. This won't necessarily answer all of his questions, but I pray he finds peace with his demons.
I also got to briefly share my faith and the gospel with another resident last night. I pray that fell on good soil, too.
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