Knit Pray Love. No, this isn't the title to the next blockbuster movie starring Julia Roberts or Katherine Heigel (two actresses known for their knitting skills). It is a charity knitting project associated with CureKids and Air1 radio station to provide hats for babies and children at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Although you may not think about it, Afghanistan can be a very cold place.
I started knitting for this project late in the game. The hats have to be mailed by February 15. I'm at 1 1/2 hats as of 5:00 AM Super Bowl Sunday. So, I'll be knitting at the Super Bowl Party.
After attending a women's retreat over the weekend, the word "love" has much more meaning. The theme of the retreat was "Loving Well" based on a video series of the same name by Beth Moore. I don't even know where to start. It was the best women's retreat I have attended. There were powerful testimonies from three wonderful ladies. We learned that our capacity to love anyone through anything comes through God's perfect love poured into our imperfect hearts. Anyone is the person who is a joy to love, the person who can be testy (who pushes our buttons), our foe, or a stranger.
The main text was 1 John 4:7-1. "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not loves does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that me might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
God was preparing me for this retreat in advance. Of course, I didn't realize it until the retreat. First, was through Knit Pray Love. I knew about the project but wasn't thinking too seriously about it. Crazy, I know. I'm a knitter who is looking for ways to use my craft for the Kingdom. I think Satan was trying to keep me too busy in other areas of my life. But a story in the news caught my eye. An Afghan woman was killed by her husband and mother-in-law for having a third baby girl. My heart ached for the women and children of Afghanistan.
See, I may know one of those women who is my age. The year was 1979 or thereabouts the time of the War between the Soviets and Afghanistan. We had a new student at Lodge Elementary School, a girl from Afghanistan. For the life of me, I can't remember her name. I wish I could. At the time, my mother was teaching our girl scout troop to crochet. At lunch, some of my friends and I were practicing crochet and having trouble. I was KIPing (Knitting in Public) or CIPing as the case may before it was cool. Our new classmate came over and started helping us as she already knew how to crochet but was just learning English. Crafting as a bridge across cultures is such a wonderful thing. I believe she wasn't at our school for very long. I have no idea if she stayed in the states or moved elsewhere. For all I know, she could be living in Afghanistan.
Thanks to my mother, I have a craft with which I can share love. It's one way she shared her love with me. Miss you Mom.
On the second day of the retreat, I brought a hat I was working on. I hadn't really looked at the pattern until I downloaded it onto my Nook. The name of the pattern "Be Loving" from a collection of patterns based on the fruit of the spirit. Definitely, not a coincidence.
This past week a thought popped into my head after a lunch discussion with my boss about how many people in our department have the ability and desire to work away from the office with laptops and teleconferencing. The thought was that I think I could work from home one day a week. Initially, this thought was about saving 2 hours of drive time a week. The only day I can come up with that doesn't have set meetings is Tuesday. Yesterday during the testimony of Peggy who heads up our homeless ministry, it dawned on me that Tuesday is the day that our homeless ministry at church makes and delivers meals to downtown Indianapolis. I've wanted to help with the prep of the food, but work has gotten in the way. I need talk to Peggy to see if she needs help in the kitchen for part of the afternoon and pray, pray, pray that my motivations for wanting to work from home are not merely self-centered. Of course, this is just an idea. I have no idea if it will fly with my boss or how it would work with the department's workload. This is going to require lots of prayer and discipline on my part.
Anyone have any ideas what Peggy can make with a ton (yes, 2,000 pounds) of butter that was donated? She asked for butter and God provided.
I just need to let God tell me how to use my stand mixer to his glory.
Forgive me for this rambling post.
Bottom line, God is perfect love and since he loved me, I am to love.
My new motto will now be Love Pray Knit. The only order that makes sense. This is really becoming an exciting journey.
BTW, diet crashed and burned this past week big time. One thing at a time. God is working on me and that's the most important thing.
