Perseverance

Perseverance is defined as "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement" (dictionary.com). Everyday at BG, I see pictures of perseverance.

A child with cerebral palsy, who fights through everyone's opinions of what their life should look like and learns how to walk.

A house mother who continues to do everything she can to make sure a child who struggled with sickness, stays strong and healthy.

A volunteer who everyday works with the younger children, making sure they are stimulated and reaching their milestones.

I read emails from families who desire their children to be in their arms, yet sit and wait behind paperwork and appointments.

For me, perseverance is the ability to look past your current situation and focus on a better outcome. Each day I am here I pray...

For the children to see themselves not as "fatherless," but as a precious gift that deserves to have the world.

For the staff members and volunteers to fight through the exhaustion and see how important they are.

For the families to know that one day their arms will be full and they will hear the voice of their child or children.

Charles Spurgeon once said, "By perseverance the snail reached the ark." SERIOUSLY, just think about that. A snail is an extremely slow moving animal. It is easy to overlook them because they are small. Can you imagine the busyness that was happening while Noah was trying to get the animals into the ark? It had to be chaos. But through it all the snail made it!! The snail didn't give up, even though all the other animals were passing them and maybe overlooking them because of their size. The snail made it to the ark and because of that we still have snails today.

I heard this quote last week on a day when I was tired. Nothing major was happening, I was just tired. A group of older boys were circled together looking at the ground. One of them grabbed my hand and took me over to the place they were at. There in the middle of their huddle was a snail, moving every so slowly, but moving none the less. It was a great reminder to me that we all need to be more snail like.

Be a snail today. Persevere through what you are facing and be prepared for how God will use it to bring hope to the world.

"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us" (Romans 5:3-5, NIV).