{"id":789,"date":"2008-02-16T15:24:10","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T21:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/2008\/02\/16\/compassion\/"},"modified":"2008-02-16T15:24:10","modified_gmt":"2008-02-16T21:24:10","slug":"compassion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/?p=789","title":{"rendered":"Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I’ve been following the stories of some of my favorite<\/a> bloggers<\/a> who have gone to Uganda with a group of Christian bloggers<\/a> sponsored by Compassion. <\/p>\n

“For the first time, Compassion is bringing 15 Christian bloggers to see the ministry’s work firsthand. The bloggers depart for Uganda on Feb. 10 and arrive back in the United States on Feb. 18. Read their blogs and get an insider’s view of Compassion as the bloggers send live updates.”<\/p>\n

As I’ve read their accounts of seeing these children and the conditions they live in, it’s tugged at my heart. It’s amazing that these kids have so little, but can still be happy. I was especially touched by Shannon’s account<\/a> of when she met the child that she has been sponsoring. Or this story<\/a> of how a stuffed panda made a woman break down and cry–even before she met the child she was sponsoring.<\/p>\n

And when I contrast the stories of these kids–that have literally nothing–with my kids who have everything, I feel guilty. Guilty that we have so much. I’ve spent most of the day and part of yesterday cleaning out my son’s closet. I’ve taken 5 full garbage bags to the trash. Bags of broken pencils, crumpled papers, lego pieces, toys that don’t get played with, socks with holes in them, candy wrappers (some with candy still in them) and so much “stuff” I can’t recall what it even was. I’ve organized his clothes and his books and his games and tried hard to not just throw everything away, but to keep the things that I think will be important to him. And I’ve filled a box with clothes that are too small, including a pair of shoes that I think he wore twice, before they got lost in the mess that was his closet. I’ll donate those and hope that someone else’s boy gets some good use out of them.<\/p>\n

Do I give my kids too much “stuff”? Yes, I’m afraid I do. Do I have too much “stuff” myself? Yes, I really do. Maybe what we need in our family is to sponsor a child<\/a>. Maybe that would help us give more of ourselves and think less of ourselves. And maybe you’ll consider it, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I’ve been following the stories of some of my favorite bloggers who have gone to Uganda with a group of Christian bloggers sponsored by Compassion. “For the first time, Compassion is bringing 15 Christian bloggers to see the ministry’s work firsthand. The bloggers depart for Uganda on Feb. 10 and arrive back in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paige.ericksonfamily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}