Let us give up our own selfish ambition

I have been asking myself a question lately.  What is it going to take for people to stop being so self-centered?  It starts with me.  I have lived the last several years of my life completely engulfed in my own agenda, my own hopes and wants.  I have strived to have a nice house, nice car, nice clothes, nice friends, nice job.  The common denominator to all of this is ME.  It reminds me of that country song by Toby Kieth "I want to talk about me."  I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about I, wanna talk about number one, oh my me my.  What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see.  I tried to find a bible verse that would substantiate such an attitude, but I neglected to find one.  Instead, I find James 1:27.  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  And Mark 10:21.  "“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  John 13:34.  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  We are commanded to do everything out of love toward one another.  We are to give of ourselves in order to grow the Kingdom of God.  It is hard to do everything you can to help and love the needy in this world, yet hold our own selfish ambitions in such high regard.  Phillipians 2:3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."
My reason for starting this blog is to let go of my own selfish ambitions.  I really do want to value others needs above my own.  Partly because I am so blessed in this life.  Even when things in my life aren't going right, I am still blessed beyond measure when comparing myself to the rest of the world.  I live a very privelaged life.  I have hope.  I want to give some of that hope to people that have no hope.  I want to show the love of Jesus to those that don't know of it.  So if you are reading this, maybe you can, too. 
There are a lot of people in this life that do A LOT.  But there is very little people in this world that do even just a little.  What if we all just did a little?  What if you sponsored one child?  What if you were a big brother/sister to one child?  What if you gave one coat to a child in need?  I doesn't seem like a little can make a difference, but can you imagine the difference it makes for that one child?  There are 450 million orphans in the world.  Billions more that are living the life of extreme poverty.  Adopting one didn't even make a dent in those statistics.  But it sure made a dent in my two's lives.  We have to stop thinking that we gotta go big all the time.  Bigger cars require more gas.  Bigger houses take more money to maintain.  Bigger doesn't mean better.  Some people are meant to move to Africa and run an orphanage.  But more people are meant to change the world little by little, right where they are. 
Yes, peace on Earth really won't fully come until Jesus returns but peace in our hearts can happen today.  Peace in my heart comes when I know the Lord is pleased with me.  When I look outside myself and do something for someone else, peace just overcomes me.  So my prayer today is that those that read this would somehow have their spirit stirred up to show the love of Jesus to the people in this world.

Operation Christmas Child Update

Happy Valentine's Day! Tomorrow is the day after, and if you are out and about and see the Valentinee's Day loot on sale and are led to buy some of it for my project, that would be a big blessing!  Usually the dollar store and dollar bins at Target have V-Day stuff 50% off.  School supplies like pencils, erasers, little toys, stuffed animals.  Anything that would fit in a shoe box that a kid would like.  Here is the address of where to send it.  Thank you in advance, and God Bless You!!

Amy Adkins
5644 S Ingalls St
Littleton, CO  80123