Life Lessons

I have been given the unbelievable gift of having traveled to many parts of our world. Through this I have had my eyes opened to so many things. Some beautiful and some not so beautiful. Experiencing other cultures, their traditions, their views, their struggles change you. It can make the world seem so immense and so small at the same time. I learned so many lessons about life as I walked alone in places so far from and so unfamiliar to home. In the last few years I haven't really thought about it much. Those lessons are in so many ways just a part of who I am now, how I view the world, and how I live my life. I don't have to think about it all the time, but it is a part of me forever. Lately, I have been pondering ways to pass these lessons on to my children. And more than just saying "eat your vegetables, there are starving children in Africa." I want my kids to value how intensely God loves each human life, to know that God has no borders, to be grateful for every little gift that they are given and to learn to be content with what they have, to have compassion and a heart of generosity, to find anger in their hearts at the injustices and indignities that one human imposes on another...and to then find the passion in their hearts to do something about it, to appreciate the beauty in differences of other people, to wonder at God's creation, to know that you can walk in God's presence in any place, circumstance or struggle. This is just a glimpse of what God spoke to me through my travels, and only the beginning of what I hope to pass on to my babies. I want to live intentionally before my children all that God has blessed me with.