Prying my eyes open

I just filled out my new calender and guess what?  Christmas season is coming.  I generally begin to get that little mixed up feeling in my gut when the calender flips to September 1st.  You know, the excitement, the wishing it wasn't 100degrees outside, the fun and planning.  Yet that panicky feeling of spending so much money(when you have 4 kids Christmas is expensive!) for something that is so fleeting and over in minutes and remembering the driving bazillion miles to different events?  To help me keep things in perspective, I'm making my eyes remain open to the truth about children suffering in the world. 

Here is a quote from Radical, Taking Your Faith Back From the American Dream by David Platt
"More than twenty-six thousand children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or preventable disease.  To put it in persepective for the church I pastor, if this were happening among the children in my community, then every child eighteen years or younger in our county would be dead within the next two days."

These are some of the faces of the suffering children that I had the privelage of meeting when I was in Haiti.

This baby was 10months old and weighed about 7 pounds--starving to death.

Maybe Santa will bring  one less video game and we can go serve at a homeless shelter in our city and maybe even send money to Compassion Int, World Vision, orphanCare Int, Samaratin's Purse, Food for the Poor or any number of worthy organizations helping children.  Yes, Christmas season is coming soon and I'm prying my eyes open!