#AtoZChallenge - C is for Compassion

These daily posts are part of the A to Z Challenge

C is for Compassion - a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Do you have compassion? This is a touchy subject in this day and age. Many people in this "me, me, me"  culture do not. They look at someone less fortunate as someone who failed, or didn't try hard enough or perhaps didn't even bother at all.
What I've learned through the years is while maybe that is true, for some people, who am I to judge the ins and outs of why someone is in a situation? If  my heart feels a tug at someones plight, I do not worry about how they got there, I try to help them - in some small way - to pick themselves up. 

It's called compassion people. Let's all try to have a little bit more.

This time last year I was on a week long inner city mission trip with a high school youth group to NYC. We spent the students spring break doing amazing things.  I prayed for people outside the subway and bus stations - one woman named Faith, started crying the moment we stepped up to her and offered to pray for her that morning. She's raising two teens in the Jamaica Queens, and she is scared for them every day.

I served Easter dinner at the NYC Rescue Mission, we sang and served lunch at St. Paul's House in Hell's Kitchen, helped run an Easter Egg hunt in the middle of a park in Brooklyn - and I mean the hood of Brooklyn and worked in several NYC projects, where I was seriously out of place but brought light and love to those who needed it! 

I've worked with ministries giving free clothing to those in need locally, have done clean up work for Hurricane Sandy victims, fed homeless on the streets of Charlotte and NYC, donated money to charities, given shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, adopted an angel from an angel tree, we support a child in Kenya  and my husband has even gone on a 14 day Kenyan mission trip to help build a medical clinic and provide clean water to a village.

I don't share these things to toot my own horn, really I swear I don't! I tell you these things to remind you that if I, a simple girl in Charlotte, NC with 3 kids, 2 dogs and a spouse can make a difference so can you. Find a cause you feel is worthy and help. Donate your old clothes to shelters, battered woman/men facilities, bring board games or coloring tools to your local children's hospital. Give a $5 gift card to you local fireman or police officer when you see one and just say thanks. Having a compassion for others isn't a hard thing to do. AND because it often comes up when talking about compassion, I want to say this isn't a religious thing this is a HUMAN thing.

Check out these quotes by amazingly compassionate people