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Thursday, May 11, 2005 10:52 PM
Last night our ladies' Bible study was studying the Proverbs 31 woman; you know, that oh-so-perfect representation of womanhood that makes you feel so inadequate you just want to give up and eat bonbons all day. We are trying to emphasize that this is the summation of the woman's life, not a single day. (Really, does any woman with kids still living at home have "children that rise up and call her blessed"?) I'm figuring this was her eulogy, where everyone had to say nice things about her, and the piles of laundry on the floor, the inch-thick dust on the furniture and the days she screamed at her kids like a banshee weren't mentioned because "it isn't right to speak poorly of the dead."
Anyway, we were talking about the fact that she is kind. Verse 20 says, "She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy." The conversation reached a point where we were talking about welfare reform, street beggars and homeless people. But then one of the people in the group brought up the topic of food insecurity: people who seem to be middle class but actually have to skip meals in order to survive financially. In my usual fashion, I made up a statistic on the spot, about the number of children living in food insecure households. (Don't worry, I always tell people that I am making up the number or, at least, guessing.)
Today I had to find out what the facts really are. So here it is from The Bread for the World website (www.bread.org). "In the United States, 13 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger." That's 13 million children too many, and plenty of adults too. Why not join Bread for the World with a gift of $25 or more and help stop hunger? Bread for the World is a nationwide Christian citizens' movement seeking justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying our nation's decision makers. They work on Capital Hill, with senators and representatives of both parties, to pass legislation that seeks to end hunger in America and around the world. Why not open your arms to the poor by joining Bread for the World today?
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