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The first assignment for this year's Compassion Blog Month is the following question:

If you could go back and give your childhood self a little advice, what would it be?

I thought about it for quite a while. It's so hard to narrow it down to just one or two things. I also tried to look at it from the perspective of a mom and tried to think of some of the things I want to teach my daughter...again, there's SO MUCH!!

Of course, there are the obvious things that every parent wants for their child - Be confident. Be kind to others. Be honest. Don't be afraid to try new things and make mistakes. Don't worry so much about what people think. And so on....

But, as I continued to think about this over the past few days, one word kept coming back to me over and over: I want my life and the lives of my children to be characterized by love. And I don't mean fluffy, feel-good, fairy-tale, puppy love. Real love - the kind that makes you do things for others you might not otherwise do. The kind that requires sacrifice and is sometimes really, really hard.

This is the way that we are loved by God - with a perfect, self-sacrificing, unstoppable, unconditional love. There's no way that we, as imperfect humans, can consistently emulate this kind of love, but we can sure make it our goal and strive to show this kind of love to others as often as our imperfect, selfish hearts allow.

So, if there's one thing I would go back and tell my childhood self, and if there's one thing I want my daughter to know more than anything else, it's this: You are loved beyond anything you can imagine by the God of the universe, even when you don't deserve it. Love Him back with everything you are. And then take that love and share it with others, yourself included. We have so many opportunities to love others if we're really looking for them. One way is by sponsoring a child through Compassion. We are blessed with warm, safe homes, more than enough food and clothing, and almost everything we could ever want. Would you consider sharing from your abundance, opening up your heart and loving a child through sponsorship?

Click here to get started today...
Labels: blessed, Compassion, faith, inspired