What Love Includes

I am learning what kinds of love people need. When it comes to children we all know that they need to be taken care of. You can love them by taking care of their needs. Some of these needs may not be on a one to one level with the child. Cooking and cleaning can even be done without loving each child.

Then there's touch; babies and little ones need to be touched. It takes touch to clean them and feed them but if that is all you do they will be slow or won't learn to sit up and walk. The team has been working with a couple special needs babies. Romina is blind and Govonney has something wrong with his muscles, it could be his brain. Romina has learned to sit up since I have been here. Govonney seems to be getting closer but still isn't there. Nearly all the kids want to have us near them and to get a hug from us. It can be a little overwhelming when it feels like you are on the bottom of a dog pile. It just shows how important touch is as a form of love.

One on one interaction: This is one that can be skipped and you can live though it is still a need. This the one that we are mostly here to do. I have not seen the results as much as the rest of the team because I came later. Though I have heard and seen a little. Kids have shown improvement in behavior just because we are interacting with them on a personal level. It is turning around when your name is called and smiling and then doing it again and again. Holding someone on your lap nearly every time you sit down. Listening to them and being interested even when you don't understand a word of what they are saying.

Loving others in the way I view them: The Lord has been working on me in this area. He has been patiently teaching and showing me His Grace and what it means in my relationships with other people. When I view someone do I look at their actions before I decide how I am going to love them? Jesus doesn't, He died for all of the sin past, present, and future. When God looks at us, who are Christians, we are clean. I am loved unconditionally by my Lord. He wants me to love others the same way. Everyone is not following the Savior the same way. Christians do not all have the same ideas of what standards to hold. God has written His law individually in His Children's hearts. If we are His Children we know what is right and wrong. It is not the same when it comes to the little stuff for everyone. I am reminded to let God be the judge. No two lives look the same and we have to be different to work together.

These are just a few of the lessons God is teaching me during this time of serving Him. Thank you to everyone for praying for me. It is my prayer that the Lord will use this time of my life for His Glory with lasting results.