Lights Out & a Bowl of Rice

There are times in life when we don’t realize what we have until you are without out them. As parents we try to teach our kids to be grateful for what they have. Whether it’s having a roof over our heads, food on the table, a loving family, etc. we want our kids to understand that many people in the world do not have all of the luxuries that we have. With that said we recently spent one evening without lights and by eating a very simple dinner.

Our dinner for the night consisted of a bowl of rice for each person by candlelight and flashlights. For the rest of the evening we left the lights off and continued to use candles and flashlights to light the house. With the TV off, the computer off, the video games off and everything else off we had an opportunity to talk, play games and share things that we were each grateful for.

As we explained to the kids, our experience was still very different than many in the world. Although we did not have a large meal, use lights or electronic entertainment for the night, we still had a pantry and refrigerator full of food if we needed it. We had medicine in the cabinets (which we actually needed: Benadryl), we had running water, a furnace and many other things that others in the world do not have.

The way that we view the world has changed since we began sponsoring our child through Compassion International. The sponsorship has given us an opportunity to see, that as people that have been blessed in abundance that we need to share that blessing with others. We pray daily for our Compassion child and the kids are reminded daily of our little girl in Thailand that we have the opportunity to support.

In the end I think this was a good experience for all. The thing that surprised me the most was that none of the kids complained about the simple meal of a bowl of rice. With four kids it seems like someone is always complaining about something at the dinner table.


Chris