Life is Beautiful

I get stressed out a lot. I don’t know why really. Because I have a lot to do? Because the things I’m doing are somehow so important that they necessitate me freaking out? As I sit in here Sierra Leone…I’m confused. The past two days have been so busy. But they have been the most joyful. Sure there was a moment during Arts and Crafts day yesterday where we had 25 boys running amuck, not paying attention that I thought I might loose my cool for a moment. But then I took a deep breath. In and out. I forget to breathe. Even if I don’t show it on the outside, sometimes inside my head I want to punch something when my to-do list is too long or the traffic is not fast enough or the man in line at the store does something that annoys me, or something doesn’t go my way. What does any of it matter? Just breathe. There’s a youth pastor named Rob Bell that did a series of videos called ‘Nooma’ videos and one of my favorites is entitled ‘Breathe.’ He says God is as close as the air we breathe. Each breath we take in and out we can feel the very existence of the God who created us. The exuberant fun we have had the past few days has reminded me just that!

Yesterday we had ‘Arts and Crafts Day’ at the center. We took each room group after nap-time and gave them a wooden cross to decorate with paint pens, glue and colorful beads! It was meticulous to organize, but it went well! Grandma Linda and Stacey stayed in the back of the room and painted the girls fingernails and toenails and the boys played outside while they waited on their turn…at the end we had 70 some odd decorated crosses drying on the balcony! It was so awesome watching each of them decorate their cross in their own unique way. Encouraging them, helping them. It was so great!

Then this morning we finished the playroom!! All of the bins are organized, nursery rhymes hanging on the walls, dress up clothes hung on colorful hooks, encouraging words and animal faces hung on the wall, stuffed animals aligning the book shelves…it’s exactly how we envisioned it! We had an arts and crafts table made for the main room and hung a mural on the wall of Noah and the Ark with a heading that says “God Keeps His Promises.” And tomorrow we’ll finish off the whole project by finishing our “Reading Corner” where there will be encouraging Bible Verses hanging from a fish net along the wall! We broke it in by giving the teen mom’s a break and bringing their babies up to draw and play with puzzles. Regina and Mariatu are the two teen mom’s at The Center. They each have two children. Once they joined us with their kiddos we gave each of them a purse with nail polish, perfume and lotion and gave the toddlers some dress up clothes. Then…the dance party of all dance parties began! Dancing with them was nothing but pure joy. Unabandoned joy. Nothing better.

This afternoon we also went to “Sports Day.” Sports Day is a huge event that each school puts on. There are 7 of the older kids at the center who go to Secondary school and participate in many of the track and field events. We got to go and sit in the stands and watch them run, jump, relay etc…I have never felt more like a proud mother than I did today! We cheered the loudest…our kids were the best…and I’m sure that Isatu has a future as an Olympic Athlete in the Long Jump! Encouragement. Another incredible uninhibited, joyful, stress free experience. The thing I noticed the most was how beautiful it was watching two of the heads of the Center, Pastor Daniel and Uncle Daniel, encouraging the kids and playing the role of “Father” for them as they competed. Don’t you remember how it felt to look in the stands when you were younger and see your parents cheering you on? Or if you didn’t play sports…to look out in the audience out of the corner of your eye and see them watching you perform? It was the best wasn’t it? You never felt more proud. Take a breath! Life is beautiful!

The past two days I have been constantly reminded of every breath I take. And how joyful that is. Not stressful. Joyful. It’s in the moments when we breathe, sit back and just enjoy the fullness of life that we are captivated by our very existence! What if each day we took a moment to dance around uninhibited? What if we took time to encourage the people we care about…but tend to forget about because we are constantly going…because we don’t breathe. To forget the stress of our to-do list or forget the little annoyances that we make a huge deal in our mind and just live.

Tonight we went to prayer time with the teen mom’s and their caretaker Auntie Alice asked me to explain why I think a relationship with God is so wonderful. I smiled and looked down into the big brown eyes and smile of the adorable little 2 year-old baby girl, Zainab, that I held in my arms and had my answer right in front of me. When I look into the eyes of a child, up at the stars, the moon, the sky…every thing…every specimen…every molecule…all the life around me…I know without a doubt that I have a relationship with unconditional light and love…that no matter what darkness may come to me or anyone around me that there is light and assurance of a God who is so powerful, so mighty that he gave us life. He breathed into us. And if he breathed into me…shouldn’t my response be to breathe in each day to the fullest? Why stress? Why not just live out beauty? Life is beautiful. ☺


Hope You See the Beauty in Your Life Today,

Regina

P.S. For all my theological and seminary minded friends….I apologize for my constant use of the ‘masculine’ in reference to God…you may insert whatever gender you feel necessary to encompass his magnitude. ☺