Don't Harden Your Heart

Tonight we went to pick up our Girl from church. She spent one week with children from the foster care system at a camp outside of town. This is something our church has done for years and she personally has done it since she was 18.

She had one little girl that clearly had some mental health issues. Emotionally, she would be up and down, like a roller coaster. My daughter said she would be the life of the party and then she would be agitated and angry.

Today being the last day, the kids start to act out, this happens every year as they know they have to go back to a life they would most likely NOT want to go back to. In a turn of events my Girl knew things were going from bad to worse as she supervised a "Letter to God" exercise. She contacted the camp social worker and others over the walkie talkie, as this little one, 11 years old expressed how she hated her cabinmates wanted to kill herself. The this girl tried to run. The staff was able to stop her, and she attempted to take off her glasses to cut herself. It sounds like my Girl handled herself very well, but inside was shook up. The police came and took the girl away on a 51/50, Danger to Self or Others. I imagine they took her to the county mental health facility. As the staff and counslers prayed for this girl, my Girl lost it. Now, something you gotta know about my Girl, she isn't typically emotional, at least not infront of others. I can only imagine her anquish as she told us that she left the room, went outside and hit her knees in tears. She couldn't help but think if I would have done, this...if I wouldn't have said, that, maybe then, she wouldn't have been taken away. The staff and other counselors consoled. But my husband made a good point, she had to get to this point so that she could get the help she needed.

God used my Girl, as a catalyst, as she was firm with her and wouldn't allow her to take from others, which caused her to rebel, write what she did, become enraged, and share her feelings of suidice. This then lead her to a place where she can get the help she needs emotionally.

It would be easy to Harden Your Heart to this behavior, but just the opposite happened, it makes one realize that there is much pain in the world, right in your own backyard and we should be open and loving, because we just don't know what others have been through.

All and all, the camp was a blessing and we may never know the impact that this camp will have on the lives of these young kids for years to come.

Thank you, all 70 of you that gave your time to love on kids that may never have that kind of love showed to them. To My Girl...you did the right thing, you were used to help her get the help she needed.

And to the little girl that was taken away, may you be properly diagnosised and treated, and know that your life matters and there is a plan and a purpose for your life. You are loved!

(This is actually a heart shaped defect in the concrete, how appropriate)!!!