This month has not only been a month of waiting for things (food, transportation, for the girls to come home, for the girls to go to bed, for the girls to stop walking on your mattress so you can fall back asleep, for time we know we can be alone…) it has also been a month of love.
Yes, I have been loving people every month, but I feel like the role it is playing this month is soooo important. We are in a house with a bunch of girls ranging all throughout the teenage years and younger. We do not know much about their past or why they are here. They share about their family but not why they are here. Maybe they don’t even know?
Well, I want to share with you about a girl named Reetha (pronounced Rita). She is a young girl who lost both of her parents and is now living here with her sister. Reetha is very aggressive and uses actions more than words to get you to do something. She does not use manners and craves attention. She usually just stomps somewhere or hides in her bed very dramatically so that you will go to her. I have a really hard time loving her at times and God told me to be patient with her, so I have been.
This is Reetha and I…this is the best picture I have of her, ignore my face
Reetha is someone who tells us she loves us and when we say we love her she says “NO, I hate you!” She is someone who when you tell her she is beautiful says “NO! I am not beautiful you are beautiful”. I always respond with “You can hate me, but I still love you” and “I think that you are very beautiful, stop saying that you are not pretty”. I make her use manners if she wants something, I tell her that if she wants my attention to stop yanking my arm and ask me to come politely, I tell her that hiding and not talking is not going to make her feel better and when she wants to talk to come find me. (Is God preparing me to be a mother or what?)
After all of us constantly pouring love and truth on her she is shifting!!!!! She is beginning to receive the words I love you, she doesn’t fight back when you tell her she is pretty, she is beginning to say “sister please come here” instead of pulling you, she is not hitting your hand as hard when playing hand games, she is giving hugs instead of pounds where your knuckles hurt. She knows that she can trust us, that we are not going to stop loving her, that she needs to treat us with respect. God is changing her heart and softening her up. This young girl just needs love, needs people to treat her like the child she is, needs people praying for her.
My favorite moment with her is one night I was lying on my mattress and she rolled off her bed to be next to me. She took my arm and wrapped it around herself so that her head was on my shoulder and was using my arm as a teddy bear. We were singing worship songs together and I asked her if she believed the words that she is loved and she said no. I then was able to tell her how much God loves her and how he views her as his child and his princess. We then sang some more worship songs until she got too tired.
I am on my mattress that she rolled onto from her bed which is under the person on the top of this bunk taking the picture. My bed is also the isle to get out of the room, I love the morning…
This girl drove me crazy at first and had no idea how I was going to be able to do a month with her, but I have been humbled and I see the changes in her just by listening to God and being patient with her. Please be praying for her she is still really struggling and acts on and thinks of the evil before the good. She needs freedom and restoration in her life and soul.
