September is Blog Month at Compassion International. As a Compassion Blogger, my goal is to share my heart for children in poverty and encourage others to change lives through child sponsorship. This is week number three of Blog Month. As of Monday, 1,515 children in poverty had been sponsored this month! 1,593 sponsorships are left to meet Compassion’s goal of 3,108 children sponsored in just 30 days. Together, we can change the lives of children.

If you feel called to sponsor a child through Compassion International, click here.

It was an odd week of anxiety and inspiration for me. Late Tuesday night, in the midst of swirling thoughts related to stress and anxiety I was experiencing about things done, things undone, and things that needed to be changed, I had inspiration for a blog series titled “Meet Me At This Moment.” I have a plethora of thoughts going on in my brain at any moment in time, and I thought it might be interesting to share glimpses of those thoughts with my readers! I have also been getting acquainted with a wonderful group of bloggers that meet on Twitter every Thursday night and write a blog post for Five Minute Friday centered around a single topic, all in just five minutes. I need a regular outlet for processing and expressing my thoughts, and also need to work on writing (and living) without editing myself so much, so I thought Five Minute Friday and Meet Me At This Moment would be a perfect pairing!

So…here goes the start of what I’m hoping will be a new series on this blog, Meet Me At This Moment on Five Minute Friday. In the words of Lisa-Jo Baker, creator of Five Minute Friday, “We write for five minutes flat,” this is “Unscripted. Unedited. Real.” The word of the week is WIDE.

(And if you’re wondering how all of this ties in with Compassion International, just be patient, you will see!)

READY, SET, GO…

My life is way too wide at this moment. Too much stuff, too much to do, too much on my plate. Why am I to lead a life of wide? Three children to love, clothe, feed, educate, support. A husband to love, a marriage to nurture. A private practice that will balloon out way too wide if I let it. Always keeping things under control. The wideness will not stop. Dishes everywhere, crumbs, spots on the floor, laundry spewing, clothes unfolded, beds unmade, finger marks all over the fridge, water stains on the walls of the kitchen, remnants of fast food in the car, this show and that show to watch, books piled up everywhere, unread or partly read. A blog I so desperately want to use to widen my reach, open wide my thoughts and my feelings, open wide the stories of so many awesome people God has placed in my path.

Yet, the anxiety is wide. My thoughts race as I try to grasp it all, grasp any of it. I am torn this way and that, which thing to do first, will it all ever get done, will I ever have time to do it all? Should I even be doing it all? Which of it is worthy, which of it is not?

Then it is all put in perspective. I’m making macaroni and cheese and apples and caramel dip and milk and salad and tomatoes for my children, and my husband is gone on a three day business trip and I’m trying to participate in a tweet chat with the Compassion Bloggers. Here I am in my stress, moving this way and that way, my anxiety of this first world, preparing what is really a banquet feast for my children. All of my stresses really a blessing, I’m on my smart phone with an unbelievable group of people and all for Compassion International. What is the purpose, what is the point? We are all gathered to work together for children in poverty, children in need, families in need? What is the purpose, the point? I have a voice, the children do not. All the excess, the wide expanse that is my life, is all so narrow for someone else. For the little child in poverty, life is narrowed, the wide life completely unknown. All the wide open and available, if only the resources available. I can be that voice, in my wideness, I can provide for someone in the narrow. Even if it is just my voice. My wide expanse of a life can be narrowed to make someone else’s life wider.

STOP. (Well, good for my first try. I wrote for 8 minutes!)

If you would like to sponsor a child through Compassion, click here!!

On a related note, Compassion is having a Pinterest contest this week! The contest runs through Monday, September 23rd, so you still have three days to participate! Every contest entry gives you a chance to win a $25 or $100 gift for your sponsored child! Here is the rundown. If you want full details, click here.

1. Create a Pinterest board titled “My Sponsored Child.”
2. On the board you create:

• pin the image in this post and associate the following link with the pin:
  compassion.com/my-sponsored-child.
• pin any one of the following and tag this second pin with #mysponsoredchild.
  • A photo of you and your sponsored child together.
  • A photo of you with a letter from your sponsored child.
  • A photo of you holding a photo of your sponsored child.
• pin anything else you want that is relevant to your sponsored child or Compassion.

Once you have created your board, share the URL with Compassion International, along with your contact information, using the form at the end of this blog post.

You will receive one contest entry for every repin your “Pin It for My Sponsored Child” pin receives.

You can also enter the contest by sponsoring a child via compassion.com/my-sponsored-child during the contest period. You will receive 30 contest entries for each child you sponsor.

Amy