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I will live to carry your compassion

A few weeks ago I mentioned how God has been answering my prayers for greater discernment in my life. Another one of those long-term prayer requests in my life has been to grow in compassion. And MAN I can't believe God has been answering!

I mean, I must be really faithless to have doubted--after all, one of my fav verses right now is 1 John 5:14 which says "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." Jesus was full of compassion, so why wouldn't God want to grant me compassion if I asked for it, right?

I noticed how much I lacked in compassion when I was with two particular people groups--children, and the poor. But over the past year and a half (since I started praying in November of 2009), God has thrown multiple opportunities to grow in an area of weakness. The first was in partaking in the social just!ce movement at our church last year where we brainstormed ways to raise awareness of social issues within our church (we ended up producing a CD to get the word out).

This past year I had the awesome unexpected opportunity to volunteer with Junior Achievement, rubbing shoulders with youth in the city of Detroit. This past Friday I spent the whole day with a class of 1st graders in Detroit--after the first hour, the students were fighting for my attention, affection, and recognition, a complete stranger who frankly is not very gifted with children. I got to spend alot of time with them throughout the day, and what broke my heart was how expected it was for them to lose one of their family members to homicide. Throughout the day, students would simply come up to me and say things like..
"Miss Jamie, she (pointing to a classmate) is making me fun of me because my dad is dead."
"Hey Miss Jamie, do you know how my cousin died? ..He was in his house and then someone set his house on fire."
This was just a way of life, a given growing up in Detroit. My heart began melting for these kids. Through the day, my only desire was to pour out all the love I had and to show them that they are beloved, worthy creations. TYL for giving me so many chances this week to grow in my compassion. The ways that You, Jesus, loved children and the poor, are the same ways I want to love people.

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