Dirt "Cookies"

As I'm driving in to work this morning, I heard someone from Food for the Poor on the radio talking about kids in Haiti who eat dirt "cookies" to stave off their hunger because they have nothing else to eat. The cookies are made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening and are then left to cook in the hot sun.

Sitting in my nice, warm car sipping hot tea, I was overcome with emotion. I looked in the rear-view mirror to see if my children (children who had woken up in warm beds this morning, had clothes to put on for school, and breakfast to eat) were listening. They were.

Then I thought of what Christmas has become. Americans rushing around, spending obscene amounts of money on things that people really don't need for people they barely know, while there are people all over this world who are starving. I was overwhelmed with shame for our country. May God forgive us for turning the day that we celebrate Jesus's birth into an excuse for greed and indulgence. May God forgive me for naming something a "need" when my needs (food, shelter, clothing) are met every day.

If you are reading this, I challenge you to do something to help the less fortunate this Christmas season and I mean more than struggling to drop your pennies in the Salvation Army bucket you pass on the way out of a store, all the while trying not to drop all the bags with the Christmas presents that you just bought. Don't pretend that you don't do this!

It only takes $144 to feed a family in Haiti for an ENTIRE YEAR! I spend that much regularly in the grocery store buying food for a week or two. Maybe you can't write a check for that amount all at once. You can spread the amount out over a year, just $12 a month. We spend more than that in just one trip through the McDonald's drive-through.

If your heart is stirred by this, go to www.foodforthepoor.org for more info. Or maybe there's another cause that you are passionate about. The point is, DO SOMETHING! Don't get me wrong, I'm not against giving gifts for Christmas. I want to bless my children, but more than that I want to teach them to be unselfish, giving adults. So our family is going to feed another family for a year, even if we have to cut out the drive-through trips. And when we wake up on Christmas morning, it will not be the presents under the tree that I will be most happy about. It will be knowing that my husband and I showed our children what true love and giving looks like. Isn't that what Christmas is all about, anyway?