It is our fault, though. In the three years we have lived here, we have been thinking, "Yeah, we should probably get that fixed sometime soon." way too many times and it is catching up with us.
We are fairly responsible, reasonable people who try really hard to take care of what we have, but busyness and budget often keep us from fixing things until they become a problem. How do people who don't care about their houses or don't have any extra money to spare have them still standing?
In the midst of all this, I keep trying to remind myself of how blessed I am to have a home and adequate finances to fix things when they are broken and that our family is safe and healthy and happy. It is coming up on a year since I went to Peru and I think of Gabriel and his young mother.
The wall beside the bed that she, her husband, and Gabriel share was made of plastic just a few short months before we visited her. Even though her husband worked as a day laborer at the market 7 days a week, they did not have the money to build a permanent wall. Many of the houses we saw there were built as the people had money, so it was not uncommon to see houses that had one or two rooms or walls that were made of plastic.
Luckily, since Gabriel was in the Child Survival program, the church was able to help this family build an actual wall made of wood. This house was still a little chilly, since there was a constant breeze from the Pacific Ocean hitting it, but it was still better than several of the neighboring houses that still had plastic and tarps composing one or more walls or parts of their roof. The mother was thankful that Gabriel had not been as sick during their winter season as he had been before.
I try to keep it in perspective. I really do. I don't want to have seeds of discontent sown in my heart over a few problems with our house that will (hopefully) be remedied in a few short weeks. Can you pray for me?
2 comments:
I can pray for you. And I struggle in the same. It's hard to see the struggles our Compassion Families have when around us are beautiful houses, nice cars, air conditioning, clean water from our sinks...I often look at my house and all it's issues with dissatisfaction and frustration...if only I could fix it up! But Ermias or Yenifer's families would LOVE my house. It would be like a mansion to them. So you can pray for me too. That is my struggle as well. Love you!
Yep, you are not alone. We have so much and are so rich according to worldly standards. We all need to keep that into perspective. You have my prayers.
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