Why I’m Choosing To Do The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I’m not really one to jump on a bandwagon. Unless it has to do with chocolate. So when my friend Alyson nominated me to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, I hesitated. I didn’t want to do it just to do it. Because everyone else is doing it. I’ve watched the heart-wrenching video from Peter Frates. I know what it’s about. And I usually don’t give to organizations like that because my funds are so limited.

But raising awareness is good. Maybe not as good as raising money. But maybe if I make someone who has more money than I aware of something, they’ll be led to give. I changed my profile picture on Facebook to the Arabic “noon” to raise awareness of and show solidarity for the Christians in Iraq and the atrocities being perpetrated against them.

But did I want to jump on this bandwagon?

And then I remembered Anni.

I met Anni at a bridal shower for my friend Faith. I sat with her at the table and asked her to tell me her story. Anni is a beautiful, outgoing, faith-filled woman whose father has ALS. Anni is his caretaker. She has put her life on hold to honor him with her service. I was so impressed by Anni’s selfless attitude. She has a really hard life. But she has some really good friends. And she loves her dad.

Chances are, her dad is not going to be around a whole lot longer. Anni needs help with meals, with getting out of the house every once in awhile, with shopping, with housework. She can’t do it herself.

One thing that Anni said to me is that, though she appreciates beyond words the meals and supplies others bring for them, she can’t stand the term “beggars can’t be choosers.” She considers herself a beggar because she needs to ask for help. She wishes people would realize that she doesn’t like to have to ask, and she’d do it herself if she knew that wouldn’t kill her in the process. She’d like for people to ask her, “What can I make for you for dinner tonight? What do you really love that you haven’t had for awhile?” Why should she not get to choose just because she’s had to ask?

So, I’m doing it for Anni. I’m going to have my son pour a bucket of ice water over my head and post it on Facebook and Instagram because that’s what Pete Frates wants me to do. Though I have no funds to contribute, I hope I am raising the awareness of someone who does. You can give at this website.

Look around you. Is there someone who is taking care of a loved one who is terminally ill? Are they bearing the burden alone? Ask them what they need. Be there for them. They are there for someone else.

Like Anni.

Here’s me, being doused.

It’s Too Hard!

My younger two kids attend a private school (Trace Academy) that is unique in its operation: the entire school is run by parents. Every family is required to volunteer at least one and a half days on campus. If you do more than that, if the school’s budget can handle it, you get a break in your tuition.

I teach 2nd grade. I have 10 little yard apes: 8 boys and 2 girls. I never before saw myself as a teacher. One of the reasons we chose this school is that I knew I wasn’t cut out to homeschool. For my first 8 years at the school, I worked in the office and then as part of the team that helped manage the school. I am an administrator.

And then, through unforeseen circumstances, God put me in this position. He made it very obvious, or I definitely wouldn’t be here.

Due to the circumstances, if I I hadn’t been walking in the Spirit, bitterness would have been my response. I would not have been able to see what He wanted me to do. I would have said, like I hear so many times in my classroom, “I don’t get it! It’s too hard! I don’t understand!” But because I saw the situation through God’s eyes, I responded in the Spirit and so find myself leading this precious though precocious group of kids with joy. And some have even said I’m good at it. Imagine that.

First Corinthians 2:14-16 in the Message says, “The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what He is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.”

Serve those who have wronged me? Ridiculous! (“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head” Romans 12:20.)

Don’t hit my brother back? But he HIT me! (“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” Romans 12:19).

We see a child who would otherwise, or so we think, have no home, being adopted and loved by a gay couple. How can we say that is wrong?

We see medical “advances” being made using fetal tissue. How can we deny someone a cure for their disease by not allowing experimentation with fetal tissue? How intolerant and rigid.

“The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness.”

I don’t get it! It’s too hard!

“Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing,”

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

Thankful today for:

28. a mild winter

28. my Vista Church family

29. a group of moms with whom I can pray