Can Your Family Make An Impact?

   Years ago,  I was going through a hard time with going through depression, and my husband did not know how to help me. We had only been married for a couple of years, and were very young in our Christian experience at that time. We were part of a church where people, even famous people, popped in for a while, at during this time a man named Charles McFeaters and his wife were part of this church. They moved away after this, to start a ministry in the inner city around Hollywood, ministering to those on the streets and drug users who wanted to be free and delivered. My husband asked Charles what could he do to help me. Charles' answer was amazing, and helpful to this day. At the time, it didn't really register, but now it makes perfect sense. The answer was also very simple. Charles recommended that I start serving other people. Instead of sitting at home brooding over things that were bothering me, I needed to serve people around me. What a new concept. Why didn't I think of that before?

   Both of our families moved to other places. But I will always remember that concept even if I didn't put it into practice right away.

    What I am writing here today is simple. It is a way that families can serve others together. It doesn't have to be just one member out of the family doing this kind of activity, although that is not wrong, and sometimes it just works out where only one family member is envisioned to do these things while others aren't quite ready yet. But, families can work together and enjoy serving others as a family unit. It will be one more way for the family unit to become stronger.

   I was reading through my email this morning, and this email came from 'Focus on the Family'. It gave some insights on how to work together as a family to serve, along with some practical suggestions. So, I will copy and paste what is written by them, here.

How are you making an impact?

Do you think of yourself as a "world changer?" Most of us want our families to somehow make a difference, but sometimes it's hard to know where to start. It helps to remember that even if we may not feel positioned right now to do much of a tangible nature, since we are all part ofsomething bigger than ourselves we can still be involved in helping to impact our world.

Here are a few brief ideas for purposefully developing a "world-changing" mindset as a household:

•	Volunteer together as an entire family—regularly or even occasionally—with local church  or civic groups that reach out to those in need in your community (soup kitchens, work  days, etc.).
•	Team up as a household to research and learn about the challenges facing people  in other parts of the world.
•	"Adopt" a missionary family in a foreign land.
•	Become acquainted with Christian ministries that specialize in assisting those affected  by difficult circumstances (poverty, persecution, etc.).*
•	If your family resources allow, consider participating in Christian relief efforts—for  example, committing to long-term sponsorship of a specific child in a third world  country, or making periodic donations to humanitarian organizations. **
•	Even if you can't give financially, make it a point to pray regularly, as a family,  for those in need "close to home" and overseas.     * According to Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (When Helping Hurts), there is a  difference between relief type of help and developmental/rehabilitative help. Many  times, compassionate people offer relief type of help, when they should be offering  rehabilitative or developmental type of help. The reason I am noting this is that when  helping people, especially in the Third World countries, and whether they realize it  or not, we are harming them and actually degrading them when we offer relief to  them instead of giving other types of help which really will in turn help these  people get back on their feet. Giving people handouts normally does NOT help  them. It keeps them in a state of poverty and keeps them looking for handouts  instead of work. The exceptions are when a country or area of the world has  been hit with a catastrophe, such as a Typhoon or hurricane, in which cases  they do need immediate relief. In those cases, we can help as families as well  by providing funds or giving our time to help in a crisis. But most poverty  situations are best helped by helping the communities to learn how to develop  where they are. Families can help with the needs. I recommend the book,  'How to Help' by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. ** Tim Timmons, A Christian music artist, recommends Compassion  International. His family has sponsored children through this organization  which helps with the development of children in Third World Countries.