blessings and trials

I sorely miss my writing time!  Just can't seem to make it happen much lately.  I researched for a post on the "Lord's Prayer" (as a model for prayer), but since then, I haven't had time to get it all down.


My Gratitude List:


- The mouse was caught at exactly 9:00 PM tonight, via a glue trap.  So grateful for the Lord's quick response to that fervent prayer.  Now we pray that his short stay here didn't involve any furry relatives.  


Tomorrow I shall suggest to the children that we write a children's book about two mice who take over the house after 11:00 PM.  Have you noticed how many children's stories there are about mice?  An insane number!  We shall contribute one of our own--minus the glue trap, of course.  Something in me wants to put a happy, humorous spin on this rather horrible problem.


- Sisters "helping" me sweep the driveway


- A clean, safe home in a safe neighborhood, with room for my children to develop optimally.


- Homeschooling, and the blessing of sheltering my children until they stand strong in Christ Jesus


- Newberry Medal-winning novels. We've read two since I last wrote an author's corner.  Hoping to get to that soon.


- Remembering that Mary used her last pair of clean underwear this morning.  I was headed to bed after a late night last night, but I thankfully remembered just in time to put in a bleach load of whites.


- Simple Mom's Compassion post  Do You Feel Guilty?  Don't.


- Passionate Homemaking's Compassion post  The Power of a Letter.


- Chatting at the Sky's Compassion post  How Stickers Can Change the World


- Shaun Grove's Compassion Post  Meeting the Neighbors Next Door


- Keeper of the Home's Compassion Post  Because I'm Afraid That I Will Forget

- As I type now, I hear another mouse caught in a glue trap under the stove.  My countenance has fallen as I think of the possibilities (were they a mating pair??), but I resolve to stand strong in my blessings, as I endure more insanely clean, sanitized days.  I do little more than clean and sanitize now, trying to keep us safe. To say this is an uncomfortable way to live--constantly wondering where the next creature is and are we going to get salmonella poisoning from them--is an understatement.  It makes me fall on my knees for all the poor mothers in third-world countries, who endure far worse.  I can take care of this problem, whereas they have generational poverty to look forward to.  I am reminded of Stephanie's words yesterday:

Thing is, there's one major difference between them and me. I can leave whenever I want to.

I can go back home to my developed nation, with its proper sanitation, indoor plumbing, hot water faucets and toilets that don't make me feel like I'm doing the 30 Day Shred.
Others don't have that luxury. Poverty is a generational curse. I can't tell you how many times already we've learned of families who still live in the same place where they were raised 20, 30, 40 years ago, or old men and women who have never left the slums and now care for their grandchildren in the same one-room squalor.

Poverty imprisons people in miry pits from which they cannot escape. Climbing your way out of a 100 foot dark, deep hole isn't really a viable option.

At least, not unless someone throws down a ladder for you to climb up. 

If you want to be that ladder and make a $38/month commitment, click here. If your finances won't allow it right now, can you forward these Compassion links to friends and relatives?