Jesus tells us clearly that His followers are the light of the world. In not these exact words, He tells us to light our lamps and cover them up would be ridiculous and wrong.
Parenting, I have found, is a practical but difficult application of this principle. How does hiding our light under a bushel relate to parenting? I'm glad you asked!
Our daughters, as followers of Jesus, are also "the light of the world." Paul spoke to the Philippians like his beloved children when he encouraged them to "be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world."
So what gives us the right as parents to withhold opportunities from these vibrant "lights" who are burning with a passion to be Christ' royal ambassadors? Isn't this what we should be preparing them for from Day 1? Shouldn't we be longing for these moments when they too choose to go and shine their light to a dark and needy world?
Yes we should. Easier said than done.
Yesterday was one of those "moments". Hannah and Katelyn were two of 10 high school girls selected to represent their school on a community service mission to northern Tanzania, an east African country. They have been counting the days down and yesterday, at 3 p.m., we launched our two oldest "shining arrows" to be lights in Africa.
We received a phone call from our school Principal around 11:30 p.m. that the girls had arrived safely in Tanzania. But I noticed this morning, even though it was Saturday, that I didn't have the best night sleep last night. :-)
The girls will be gone for 11 days. Their itinerary includes: playing with children at an orphanage, visiting recipient families of cows donated by the school, digging foundations and preparing concrete blocks for the building of a new classroom for a local school, painting classrooms, preparing lessons and activities for local children. On the last two days they will be treated to an overnight camping trip and guided safaris to enjoy the African wildlife and scenery.
This isn't their first excursion to another country. We've launched our shining arrows before on three short-term trips to Peru. But every time they go it is a step of faith to not hide our lights under a bushel!
Please pray for Hannah and Katelyn to shine brightly on this trip. The focus of this school-sponsored trip is different than the ones they have taken before, but we are praying for the same result - that our daughters will "appear as lights in the world" and they will let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
Once we got there, the scenery was spectacular!
The girls with friends at the festival.
We hiked up to a beautiful waterfall. It was worth the rocky climb!
