I love my life

My house isn't always clean, but that's okay because it is home to many.
We don't have Air conditioning, but only because I would rather spend the money that it would cost me to fix it on more important things in life, like vacations and quality time with my family.
We don't have Cable in my house, but that's ok, because there is only trash spewing from the media anyway.
We have a lot of pets, but that is okay because my kids are learning to care for things other than themselves.
We don't live like many other families I know, many people don't understand the way I choose to live, but as three of my kids sleep I hear three more giggling away in the kitchen.

I may not meet the status quo of the silent judgments not spoken by others, or maybe they are not spoken by anyone except the devil's advocate in my ear, but overall I live the way I feel God has asked me to live.  In a neighborhood not too far away from the gunshots, yet close enough to the wealthy's manicured lawns...
And on that note, I don't pay for a gardener, because I can mow my own damn lawn thank you, I just don't have time to do it every week.  I pull my own weeds, and build my own rock towers.

I fantasize about leaving this life I have built.  I fantasize about living in a neighborhood free of gun shots, in a neighborhood where I can take my children to the park without fear.  I fantasize about being wealthy and traveling the world at whim, but then I know that this reality comes at a price, a price I wouldn't choose to pay if and when the choice presents itself.  I would miss them, I would miss this.

I choose to live my life as a missionary exactly in the place that God has planted me.  Not for fame or glory but for love.  I love the children that call my house their home.  I love the children that I teach on Wednesday night.  I love my home.  If I travel, I pray that I can travel for my king, to other countries so that I can share his love with them as well.  As much as I long and crave the attention of my peers, it is with their children that I find comfort. For kids don't judge someone by what they do or do not have.  Kids judge someone by how much they love them.

Therefore God has called us to be like the little Children, we are to love as they love-open and without prerequisite. We are to have faith like a child-open minded without being limited by the world's "knowledge."