Give Me Child-like Faith.

“I love God so much. I praise the Lord and I worship him in Jesus’ name. The bible tells us about love. In the book of John 3:16 it says: For God loved the world so much that he gave his only son, so that every one who believes in him may not die but should have eternal life. That is why I love God and other peoples.”

A verse we’ve had memorized since we were in kindergarten and when we see it on paper we skip over it because we already know what it says. A verse that we don’t even really think about because we’ve heard it so many times it’s like reciting the ABC’s. But a verse that my sponsor child, Faida, was so eager to tell me about. She was so excited about a verse I’ve known and looked past my entire life.

It made me stop and think and remind myself that Faida and I, we had completely different childhoods. I was raised in a Christian home, went to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and didn’t think much of it. My church held thousands of people, had cool stage lights, nice chairs, a sound system that you can hear a mile away on Sunday mornings. We would get in our nice cars and be there in 15 minutes in time to get coffee and donuts before the service. After a little over an hour into the sermon, people would get up to leave to beat the traffic and get to the restaurants before the after church crowds showed up. Faida’s church probably wasn’t even held in a building. They probably sat on the ground. People came from miles and miles away by foot, and the services lasted several hours. The people are eager to learn more and praise more, after worshiping all day already. You see, people think here in America we are “blessed” to have big churches with nice speakers and fancy seats with a pastor who went to an expensive college for several years. But I think we’ve been fooled tremendously. I think Faida had a better childhood than me, because somehow at the age of 15, she is more wise than some adults I know, she has so much faith in God, and when I was 15, I was ungrateful, always wanting more, more, more. I always had to have the cutest clothes and the coolest cell phone. In America, we are spoiled and don’t even realize it. John 3:16? Everyone knows that verse. But do we really know that verse? Or do we just know what it says because we were given candy when we recited it in Sunday school?

Faida is the perfect example of someone with child like faith. She is barely 15 years old. She lives with her mother (father passed away) and her 5 siblings in a village where the typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and thatched roofs.  Common health problems in this area include malaria, HIV/AIDS, chicken pox and diseases caused by unclean water. Most adults are unemployed but some work as farmers and earn the equivalent of $4 per month. Her favorite food is rice, her favorite color is yellow. She loves science and worshiping God. She loves telling stories and playing hide-and-go-seek. Her mother is only employed at times as a farmer. The average life expectancy for Africans is 56, her mother is 53.

Faida has so much joy it is contagious. With the birthday money I sent her, she bought one dress, gifts for her friends, and three chickens, which to anyone here in America seems like NOTHING, yet she was so grateful. She even said I could have one of those chickens if I wanted it. She has so little yet is so grateful and content with what she has. In one of her earlier letters, she said “I come from a family that acknowledges God as the giver of every thing.” She is so wise, and has so much faith. it blows me away.

God, give me faith like Faida. Help me to be thankful for what  I already have, and not take anything for granted. Help me to constantly look to you as the giver of EVERYTHING. Give me the desire to know you more every day. To not get caught up in the pleasures and comforts of this world but be so in love with you that the things of this world wouldn’t even phase me. Help me be nothing but water to the thirsty. I pray that everyone I come in contact with would have a hunger to know more about my God.