Precious treasures

I love babies, i love holding their sweet tiny faces, and feeling their warm little bodies curl up in a ball in my arms. I have always found the cutest babies to hold and to love. The tiny little treasures always melted my heart as they melted in my arms. So it came to no surprise that as I began ministry on the World Race, I knew I would be holding lots of babies and sure enough my first day at ministry i found the only baby in the room to hold and every time after that i held him as he fell asleep and prayed for him as he had a deep wound in his head that is sister said was from a Machete. I have always had a way with babies, my mom and i would joke because no matter where I was, a restaurant, on a plane, anywhere babies would just stare at me. I came on the Race wanting to show children Christ's love for them but the only way I wanted to do that was by holding babies and playing with little children. I think that almost everyone is naturally drawn to the cuteness of a little one, but when I first stepped foot into a Haiti sunday school of about 1200 sweet children my heart was changed. As i sat on a cement block holding a little girl my heart broke as I saw the faces of the older ones, the 12/13 year olds, the ones that are having the babies Im holding. Their eyes looked so big and so full of things they should never have to endure as they are just a small child. God told me in that moment that I can hold babies all I want but those beautiful 12 year old girls need Christ's love just as much if not more. Their lives are changed forever by having a baby and being a baby yet themselves. They need to be shown love so that they can in turn love their babies well. They need to be shown Christ's love and more importantly receive Christ's love  because they can help change their culture, a culture where you get pregnant at 12. When i look into the eyes of these girls, i see more hurt, more deepness than any girl that age should have to hold. They need the hope found in Christ because at times they feel hopeless. I am challenging myself this year to love the older ones as well as the babies. It may be just taking their baby for awhile so that they can sit and not have the weight of being a mom on them just for a few minutes, so that just for a few minutes they can be a child and fully soak in Christ's love. It may be showing them love by choosing to put your am around them and choosing them out of the crowd to love, and sit with and to take time for them. We need to raise these young women up in faith so that they can in turn teach and show their babies and thus changing a culture and a mindset that they are worthless because they are so worthy, they are precious treasures.