Because He first loved us...

Today I fed six kids lunch on my porch. Six little people packed with potential and hopes and fears and dreams.

Four of those were my own little buggers, and two were from the neighborhood. As I laid out the extra dishes and served the extra food, I thought about how this picture would be multiplied on the farm. I imagine 20 kids sitting around the family table sharing about their day at school and enjoying food they helped prepare...and feeling a sense of belonging.

I want to use cooking and baking and canning to teach kids about life, faith, and family. I want to show them how they can make delicious, healthy foods with the things they grow themselves. I imagine the smiles on kids' faces when I send them home with a pie they helped make, or a jar of jam they helped can, or a bag of apples they helped pick...and feeling a sense of pride.

I think about the conversations we will have. How, when you have a child busy doing something in the kitchen, they have a tendency to open up and share from their heart. I think about the words I can say to encourage and exhort. And I imagine them going home again...and feeling loved.

Every kid should have those...a sense of belonging, and of pride, and of being loved. I pray that God uses the farm for all those things. I pray He works through me...and uses my hands and my heart.

"We love because he first loved us."

1 John 4:19