"Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see"
Both of these quotes from songs that I love are a perfect reflection of the earnest prayers from my heart to the heart of my God. What never realized when I began praying these prayers so many years ago, was to what extent the Lord would go to break my heart. To open my eyes and ears.
I can't watch a news story with out feeling the depth of pain of others devastating life circumstance, I can't read the paper with out my heart quivering in sorrow over the devastation I read. from the orphans of foreign lands to the foster children of home from the ill to the lost. From the abused and neglected to the frail and vulnerable and lonely.
I have had to force myself to find ways to refocus. ways to detach my heart from my body and allow it to seize alone. When I see, read or hear these things they affect my heart on the deepest level. I feel true pain as if it was mine to own. Rendering my breathless and leaving me with sleepless nights as I lay and ponder and pray for those who I have come to carry with me.
I would not change a thing. I am glad God created my heart this way. I am glad He chose to open my ears and eyes to hear and see the pain of this crazy world. I am glad he has chosen to send me to be an instrument of His healing and peace into this hurt and chaotic world. I only wish I had the ability to make a bigger difference, effect change in this world. For His Glory.
Some eye opening statistics about orphans of the world:
- Worldwide, an estimated 132 million children ranging from newborns to age 17 have lost one or both parents (UNICEF).
- Every 2.2 seconds a child loses a parent somewhere in the world.
- Every day 5,760 more children in the world become orphans.
- By 2015 it is projected that there will be 400 million orphaned children worldwide.
- HIV/AIDS alone has orphaned 14.9 million children, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- In developing countries, more than one third of all children live in poverty.
- Over 1 billion children suffer from at least one form of severe deprivation of basic needs like water, food, and sanitation.
- In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a total of 1.3 million children live in institutional care.
- Millions of children all over the world have to cope with domestic violence - be it neglect, physical or mental punishment, emotional or sexual abuse.
- The use of physical punishment as a way of bringing up children is still widespread. A UNICEF study covering 29 countries found that an average of 86% of the children in those countries has experienced physical punishment in their parents’ home.
- Millions of children are refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced by conflict, violations of their human rights, and natural disasters.
- Only 60% of children of secondary school age currently attend a secondary or higher school. The remaining 40% either attend a primary school or do not go to school at all.
Domestic violence Statistics:
- Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten.Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Most often, the abuser is a member of her own family.
- Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.
- Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.
- Nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm if presented with a breakup.
- Everyday in the US, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.
- Ninety-two percent of women surveyed listed reducing domestic violence and sexual assault as their top concern.
- Domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year in the US alone—the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs.
- Based on reports from 10 countries, between 55 percent and 95 percent of women who had been physically abused by their partners had never contacted non-governmental organizations, shelters, or the police for help.
- The costs of intimate partner violence in the US alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.
- Men who as children witnessed their parents’ domestic violence were twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents.
