Live the Blessing

While writing a devotional book called These Things I Pray for You: My Child, I started ending each chapter’s prayer with

We are so blessed. Amen.

Many months later, I added to the prayer I offered up with my children each night: We are so blessed. Please show us how to bless others. My family was thrown into a time of extreme trial, and yet I still felt God pressing on my heart—you are blessed; you are blessed; you are blessed.

“But it really doesn’t feel that way right now, God.”

You are blessed; you are blessed; you are blessed.

He brought particular hymns to my heart: “This is my story; this is my song: praising my Savior all the day long” (Fanny Crosby); “Revive us again; fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again” (William P. Mackay). God wasn’t pressing me with lyrics about a future triumph over my enemies; He was telling me to praise, to pray for revival, and to give Him the glory now. You are blessed; you are blessed; you are blessed.

And then the second message came: live the blessing!

God has given me much so that I can do much for others! When we live the blessing, our kindness brings praise, glory, and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father (2 Corinthians 9:8-12).  When my story and my song honor God, when my actions and words are all in thanks to Him (Colossians 3:17), when I realize the responsibility of knowing the Truth is living it and not just talking about it (James 1:17-23): when I live the blessing—Hallelujah! Amen!

I don’t say any of this to boast in my (saved-by-grace) righteousness. I say it because I am (overwhelmingly) flawed, and yet

I am blessed; I am blessed; I am blessed.

So what is Live the Blessing?

At the start of 2014, my father and I both felt called to fundraise with and for particular non-profits.  We begin to work together through our Hilliard Institute for Educational Wellness with We Are DAR (more on that here). My father is currently working on a campaign for Native American / First Nations support. We are continuing with the Hilliard Institute to raise scholarship money for at least one deserving graduate student.

Through Live the Blessing in particular (which is the name I have given my personal fundraising projects), my two goals for 2014-2015 are to raise the finances to build a well with Healing Hands International (more on that here) and raise $1,500 for new blood pressure kits and otoscopes for each of the seven hospitals and clinics with African Christian Hospitals (more on that here).

If you’d like to help, please read through this site for updates on how to do so, and keep us in your prayers.

Also, visit The Hilliard Institute's website to learn more about this non-profit.

Thanks!

Crosby, Fanny J. “Blessed Assurance.” Cyberhymnal.org. 1873. Web. 14 January 2014.

Mackay, William P. “Revive Us Again.” Hymntime.com. 1863. Web. 26 February 2014.