Jessica Metcalfe, a high school student in Illinois was instructed to write a paper for her English class entitled, "This I Believe". We were so impressed at the truth that she spoke on why many of us have been blessed by our Father God, that we HAD to share it. Please read and enjoy, praying that this truth would sink into each of our hearts stirring us into action...
Blessed to Bless: This I Believe
This morning, I woke up in a comfy bed, took a hot shower, ate a good breakfast, chose what to wear from a closet full of clothes, said hi to my family, walked to school, and talked to my friends. In Russia another teenage girl woke up this morning, but she has nothing… only herself and the rags on her back. Prostitution is her only option. In Kenya, there is a beautiful baby boy lying abandoned on the side of a dirt road. In Guatemala, a four year-old’s parents died today. In India, a girl was abducted and nobody noticed. Why? Why was I born to parents who care for me? Why do I have clothes to wear and food to eat? Why do I have opportunities and freedoms to learn and speak and think?
In the world today, there are over 143 million orphans. Slavery and trafficking exist in almost every country. There are people who feel hunger, poverty, pain, isolation and rejection every single day. So many people have absolutely nothing. From Germany to Jamaica, China to Brazil, South Africa to Eureka, Illinois, people suffer. It is there, and it is real.
My brother’s birth parents died when he was five years old. His uncle dropped him off in an orphanage at the age of seven, where he lived for two years. He was separated from his siblings, and even the clothes he wore were not his own. As our family went through the adoption process, my eyes were opened to the things happening around me. It turned out that the happy little world I lived in was the exception, not the rule. The hugeness and desperation of the things in the world astounded me. Why did I have so much, when others had so little?
This is what I have come to realize. I have not been blessed because of me… I do not deserve all that I have, and it is not based on anything I have done. I have also not been blessed for just myself. I have been blessed so that I can go and be a blessing to others. Whether that comes in the form of making advent calendars to raise money for orphans, helping someone whenever I have the power to do so, praying, or just smiling at someone to brighten their day, I can be a blessing to those around me. God has given me much, and I can and should give to others because of what I have been given. I have been blessed to bless. This I believe.
written by Jessica Metcalfe