September is Blog Month at Compassion International, and this year’s goal is 3,160 children sponsored by September 30, 2013! As a Compassion Blogger, my goal is to share my heart for children in poverty and encourage others to change lives through child sponsorship. If you’ve ever felt called to sponsor a child, I strongly encourage you to take a leap of faith and check out all of the children waiting for a sponsor on the Compassion International website!

Sweet girl.

You just turned two, all cute and cuddly in that Daisy California Fruit box. Grandma’s been canning cherries in mason jars, and you don’t know it now, but you’ll never forget those rows of canned goods in her basement.

But don’t get too cozy in that box.

You see, for a while, in fact, for way too long – life seems best in that box.

You do as you’re told. You do what’s best. You obey and you listen and you stay right in that box on the straight and narrow path.

You’re a good girl.

But after a while, sweetheart? Staying in that box, doing what you’re told, doing what’s best becomes a game of people pleasing. And you’ll never win.

You’ll find yourself stuck in that box, and you’ll want to break free. You’ll want to tear it to shreds or cut it up into tiny pieces or just throw the whole thing out the door. And you won’t be smiling anymore either, little one.

The voices will tell you –

Do what’s right.

Do what’s best.

Do what everyone wants you to do.

Do what you think everyone wants you to do.

Stay in. the. box.

Whatever you do. Do not get out of the box.

But if you listen to those voices? If you let them rule you, guide you? God’s call on your life will be drowned out. You won’t be able to separate His voice from theirs.

So little one, step out. It’s ok. It really is.

Take my hand. Take His hand. Let Him guide you, and forget the rest.

Because His plans, His purpose for your life is out of the box, off the beaten path.

Your heart will beat louder, your smile will beam longer, your days will be brighter – if you trust, and step right out.

Millions of children around the world find themselves in the box of extreme poverty. Bound, constricted, limited – because of their circumstances. Seemingly stuck for a lifetime.

Wondering where the next meal is going to come from.

Sleeping on dirt floors with nothing more than a tattered blanket and flattened box for a bed.

Drinking dirty water, diseased, plagued with diarrhea and malnutrition, no medical care in sight.

Education a luxury, expensive, inaccessible.

And hope? Some days, it’s barely detectable.

But all it takes to help ONE child step out of the box of extreme poverty is ONE open heart. ONE individual, ready, willing to take a leap of faith and say YES to child sponsorship. By sponsoring a child through Compassion International, you help ONE child leap into the promise of hope waiting for him, for her.

Thousands of children are still waiting for a sponsor. Let’s rally around Compassion International’s goal and get 3,160 children sponsored this month!

And one little reminder – you don’t have to sponsor all 3,160 children.

You’re called to sponsor ONE. Or maybe ONE more.

So sponsor a child today. I promise you won’t regret it. The blessing you’ll receive will far outweigh any monthly cost, and you’ll rest easy knowing you offered your hand to a child in need.

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Luke 18: 16

Amy