3 French Hens
According to the internet explanations ( if we choose to believe that the 12 days represent 12 different parts of Christianity) the third day is for 3 Christian virtues: Faith. Hope. Charity. I was reading from a different site that said this is not code for persecuted Christians and that made me crabby because I liked it better when that seemed true. Don't believe everything you read, folks. That said, you can believe this.
Three of the hardest virtues to maintain and live by, are faith, hope and charity. Living a life of faith means not believing in the here and now, not banking on what you can see and sometimes it means if you want to walk on water, you first have to get out of the boat. Jesus called to Peter to get out of the boat and come to him......if Peter had lacked faith, he would have stayed in the boat and refused. Faith allowed him to swing his legs over the side of the boat and shift his weight forward and to stand up. Then he had to move. Today, the licensing social worker asked us how our faith would affect us as foster parents. We pretty much told her that without the help of God, we would not do a good job at it at all. God is the only way we can swing our legs out of this boat and shift our weight and stand. Faith is why we chose to put out kids in Christian school, why we chose to live in this small town, why we chose to adopt and adopt again......when we ask for God's leading and He leads us, we still need to have faith to move forward in that direction. Faith is hard. It is easier to stay in the boat.
Hope is really hard. Hoping for the best, hoping for goodness, hoping and believing there is good in the world.......Hope is really hard to maintain. Those who suffer from depression sometimes say they have no hope. Hopelessness deflates a person, makes them want to give up. I think that the devil is particularly interested in sabatoge of hope for Christians. He wants us to not believe that what is on the horizon is worth the present suffering of the day. My glass is inherently half full and not half empty so hope is not a struggle for me. Every day I interact with people who are not blessed with an internal sense that hope is real and hope matters. Hope is a hard sell to them. I guess, for now, all I can say is please, please, please don't give up on hope.
Charity. As you well know, this is my favorite. Charity is giving and blessing. Charity is sacrifice for the sake of someone else. Charity is hard because it is not in our nature, without the Holy spirit's influence. Charity goes against the American dream of success and lavish living.....charity is giving your self, your time, your resources......so charity will always be hard. It is hard to practice every day and it is harder to teach. Convincing someone to help someone else when there in no tangible payment is hard. If only we could see God's economy in Heaven. Charity could be the bank teller of that. in God's economy, money holds less value than time, and collecting is lower than sharing......until we are in Heaven and everything becomes clear....charity will be hard.
You just never know. Maybe Faith, Hope and Charity are the 3 French Hens afterall. Thanks for all who read my post yesterday and prayed for our last home study visit. It went well. She told us we did a good job and will give a positive recommendation to approve us for a license. We don't have to take any more classes or do another home study visit. We are feeling relieved and becoming prayerful for our future. Whatever God has in mind for us, moving forward, we will definitely need God's powerful hand on us to give us faith and hope and charity every single day.
Three of the hardest virtues to maintain and live by, are faith, hope and charity. Living a life of faith means not believing in the here and now, not banking on what you can see and sometimes it means if you want to walk on water, you first have to get out of the boat. Jesus called to Peter to get out of the boat and come to him......if Peter had lacked faith, he would have stayed in the boat and refused. Faith allowed him to swing his legs over the side of the boat and shift his weight forward and to stand up. Then he had to move. Today, the licensing social worker asked us how our faith would affect us as foster parents. We pretty much told her that without the help of God, we would not do a good job at it at all. God is the only way we can swing our legs out of this boat and shift our weight and stand. Faith is why we chose to put out kids in Christian school, why we chose to live in this small town, why we chose to adopt and adopt again......when we ask for God's leading and He leads us, we still need to have faith to move forward in that direction. Faith is hard. It is easier to stay in the boat.
Hope is really hard. Hoping for the best, hoping for goodness, hoping and believing there is good in the world.......Hope is really hard to maintain. Those who suffer from depression sometimes say they have no hope. Hopelessness deflates a person, makes them want to give up. I think that the devil is particularly interested in sabatoge of hope for Christians. He wants us to not believe that what is on the horizon is worth the present suffering of the day. My glass is inherently half full and not half empty so hope is not a struggle for me. Every day I interact with people who are not blessed with an internal sense that hope is real and hope matters. Hope is a hard sell to them. I guess, for now, all I can say is please, please, please don't give up on hope.
Charity. As you well know, this is my favorite. Charity is giving and blessing. Charity is sacrifice for the sake of someone else. Charity is hard because it is not in our nature, without the Holy spirit's influence. Charity goes against the American dream of success and lavish living.....charity is giving your self, your time, your resources......so charity will always be hard. It is hard to practice every day and it is harder to teach. Convincing someone to help someone else when there in no tangible payment is hard. If only we could see God's economy in Heaven. Charity could be the bank teller of that. in God's economy, money holds less value than time, and collecting is lower than sharing......until we are in Heaven and everything becomes clear....charity will be hard.
You just never know. Maybe Faith, Hope and Charity are the 3 French Hens afterall. Thanks for all who read my post yesterday and prayed for our last home study visit. It went well. She told us we did a good job and will give a positive recommendation to approve us for a license. We don't have to take any more classes or do another home study visit. We are feeling relieved and becoming prayerful for our future. Whatever God has in mind for us, moving forward, we will definitely need God's powerful hand on us to give us faith and hope and charity every single day.
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