Hello good folks'
This past weekend we were talking about what a crazy kid I used to be. My mom was saying how bad I used to be. Now, I do not think I was a bad kid. I think I was a pretty good kid. But, what do I know? We learned in anatomy how your mind really cannot retain memories from that young. You may remember bits and pieces of stuff, but most of your memories are skewed. You can remember things that had great impact on you though. It got me thinking about things that I remember. I remember loving Harriet the Spy. I wanted to be just like her. It was my dream to be a spy for the United States. Any time I had a friend over, I taught them how to properly sneak around the house without getting caught. This is what I did for fun. I drew house plans and figured out how to secretly get through the house. But, besides this, I remember trying to help out the community. I do not really know what was going through my mind. I would pack a suitcase with a blanket, clothes and food. I would leave my house in search for homeless people. Now, I lived in a nicer, kind of wealthy neighborhood in town. Of course there were no homeless people. But, in my mind there was someone out there needing my help. This is how I remember my childhood, that is why I think I was a pretty sweet child. I had such a big heart, but I did not realize it at the time. I do not know why I was pretending to be Harriet the Spy. I do not think she went around looking for homeless people to help. But, whatever it works.
The point of telling you about this is, God gave me a passion at such a young age. I wanted desperately to help people. As I grew up, the clutter of life and self love clouded my mind. I forgot about other people, because I was too worried about myself. I was always different at a young age. In my middle school years I was still so different, and I think that is when I started caring about what people thought. Middle school is a big time for change, and of course every girl wants to fit in. That is when I started caring about what clothes I wore and what I looked like. I sometimes think who I would be today if I never got caught up in the self love thing.Maybe I could have opened a homeless shelter or a food bank or something of that sort. Who knows! But, the passion of helping the helpless has flared up in me again. I just feel this deep need to help people. At church we have been talking about doing a 30 hour famine to raise money and awareness for homeless people. After hearing this, the idea kept growing for me. I discussed this with one of my best friends yesterday, and we just kept throwing out ideas. The main thing we figured out is we want to help the homeless, but we want to show them that they are loved. They are people. They are someones child, father, sister, grandson. I think people do not usually see them as that. People usually look at them and look away as quickly as possible before they have to give them a dollar. Sound familiar? It does for me. Well, we are thinking that one Friday night, we want to become homeless in Athens. We want to go into the streets with nothing. No money, no phone. We will take our cardboard sign and dress as if we are homeless. Our signs will say 'homeless for the homeless', or 'I am someones daughter', something that will get the attention of people. I know when I see something like that, I ask what is going on. People are curious. So, we will tell people what we are doing and hopefully people will listen and understand. We will be collecting money, and all of it will go towards helping the homeless. We were thinking, instead of donating the money to a shelter, we would take it and put together lunches. We would take them one day and take them to the people and visit with them. We won't ask the people to come get food, we will go to them. Show them that there is hope for them, and they are loved. I know this plan may sound crazy to some people. But for a girl that dreamed of being a united states spy as a little girl, nothing is too crazy for me. I am all about doing crazy things in the name of Love. If you ask my friends, there are not many things that I will not do. If I am passionate about something, it will happen.
If I am going to do something like this, I need to learn to not be so selfish myself. I am doing good so far, I have not bought anything the past month besides food and gas, (o.k, I bought a canvas and some paint). But the point is, I have not bought any clothes or materialistic items. Which is a big change for me. But, I like it. It is so much easier when you are not trying to keep up with the ways of the world. Believe me, you can never really keep up. I know you know what I am talking about. You go shopping one weekend and spend all of your money. You are so happy that you are going to be super fashionable the next week. Then you see on t.v a new look that is out. Shoot, now you realize you are a step behind and you need to buy that next new thing to really be in style. It is a never ending cycle and it will wear you out. If people did not care so much about what they looked like or the things they had, we would spend more time helping other people. If you truly think about it, there are not many people in this world that are selfless. There is a lot of selfish. (Again), I am not pointing fingers, I know I have this problem too. But, we Christians know that we are supposed to love the people in the world and give everything to them that we can. Sure, we may give 10%, but we never give til it hurts. So why spend all that money on more clothes that we probably won't wear? Why try to keep up with the world? Because that is what we are programmed to do. So, I am un-programming myself. I know you probably hear this all of the time but 'you have to do what makes you happy'. There is so much truth in that sentence. Seriously, think about it. How tiring is it to try to keep up with people? So stop doing things just to please other people. It does not matter what other people think. If you are happy that is all that matters. I find happiness in helping people, and I find it tiring to try and keep up with the rest of the world. So I am resting now. I am only doing what I want and what God tells me to do. It is so relieving. Really. Try it.
I am not trying to make anyone upset by writing this stuff. These are all of my thoughts. I do not dislike people who love to shop or anything. I am just throwing out ideas that I have.
love--
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