It's Who You Are

Mark 10: 6-9 says "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.'  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

Family.  Every culture has different beliefs on how a family should interact, how they should behave, how they should live.  One of the most noticible differences in Ecuadorian culture compared to American culture is that children live with their parents until they marry.  After having a conversation with Dani, one of our translators, yesterday, it really got me thinking.  These people really cherish their families.  Most never move far from home, and they are constantly surrounded by people they love.  There is always a support system in place.  In America, most of us are itching to escape from our parents at an early age.  We are encouraged to leave home and spread our wings.  Success is of the utmost importance.  What if, just for a day, we stopped to take the time to cherish our families?  What if we loved on our babies a little bit longer?  What if we took that extra day off to just be together?  It would definitely change the scope of life as we know it.

We sat down with the teenagers today, and let our youth lead their youth.  It was a beautiful thing.  Our teens told of the importance of respecting yourselves and resisting temptation.  They spoke about the hard stuff... drugs, sex, and other sins that we are all tempted by every single day.  They broke up into groups and had a discussion about those things and prayed together.  They had fun together making prayer bracelets and spending time together.  We played games, we laughed, we cried.  

Our Heavenly Father wants us to spend time with Him.  Spend time in His word, spend time talking to Him, spend time loving Him and trying to please Him and only Him.  All day long the song Good Good Father played through my mind.  You're a good good father.  You are perfect in all of your ways.

Please pray for the people of Ecuador.  I can only hope that we learn many life lessons from them.

Here are a few photos from our day: