Show Your Hearts: Donate to help the Berry Family!

I can't imagine what it would be like to be driving along with my parents one minute...and find myself in a horrific car accident the next. But that's exactly the situation the Berry children found themselves in. The parents were tragically killed, leaving behind three orphaned children--Peter (age 9), Aaron (age 8), and Willa (age 6)--to fend for themselves. And even though the children survived, the situation the Berry children are in is still perilous: Peter and Aaron sustained serious spinal cord injuries and are paralyzed below the waist; and the costs are high to meet all of the children's ongoing needs--not just medical and physical but psychological assistance as well.

We can help. I'm a firm believer that "by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass." Any donation you and I can make, however small we may think it is, will greatly benefit these children. Please donate whatever amount you can to the Show Your Hearts organization; they will ensure that all donations will be deposited directly in the Joshua and Robin Berry Children's Trust.

Joshua and Robin Berry Children's Trust
Bank of Texas
510 Bering, 5th Floor
Houston, Texas 77057

You can also text BERRY to 85944 to make a $10 donation remember to reply yes to confirm your gift. **Donations are NOT tax deductible. 

Someone asked me why I care so much about three children I've never met. Why would I (in his words) "waste" my time trying to garner funds for strangers. "Don't you have more important things to do?"

As a logically-minded business woman, I understand the genesis of his question. We use opportunity costs and ROI (return on investment) in situations to measure value; metrics help us create a baseline, gauge our efforts, and make improvements where necessary. According to his calculations, the opportunity cost of investing my limited time in helping strangers seemed ludicrous.

I think differently.

In measuring the ROI on helping others, I use a different, personal set of metrics. I measure the qualitative--not quantitative--value of my investment. What is the ROI if I don't help others? Selfishness. Pride. Shrinking of self. Lost opportunities for feeling joy. Money, possessions, time, etc getting a greater hold upon my heart.

"Because I have been given much, I too must give." That is the standard I embrace--one that cannot be adequately measured by numbers and formulas. And perhaps it appears foolish to some who cannot see how "wasting time" on someone else's children is a valid use of one's time--especially when business is to be done. But shouldn't we really be about a Higher Business, that of helping each other?

Like a Child at Home

I love music, especially sacred music. One of the greatest joys in life is to hear music that uplifts, inspires, and teaches. How joyful I feel when I hear someone sing the very words my soul wants to express.

"My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" is one of these joyful tender mercies for me. All of the words are the testimony I wish to sing of my Savior. However, the last stanza encapsulates the deepest desire of my heart: to feel safe, secure, comfortable, wanted, and loved, like a child at home would feel.

My Shepherd will supply my need,
Jehovah is His name.
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.

He brings my wand’ring spirit back,
When I forsake His ways.
And leads me for His mercy’s sake
In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death
Thy presence is my stay.
One word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.

Thy hand in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread.
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days.
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my work be praise.

There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come.
No more a stranger nor a guest,
But like a child at home.

These words echo in my heart and cause it to yearn to feel that "settled rest" with Heavenly Father and the Savior. To this point in my life, I have never felt settled; I've always had to take care of myself and to struggle just to survive. My weary soul rejoices at the very idea of resting, of securing a place where I belong, a place where I am not treated as a stranger or a guest but "like a child at home."

What would that look like (feeling safe "like a child at home")? I can only imagine....

Prone to Leave the God I Love

The lyrics of "Come, thou fount" continue to resonate in my mind. I am especially fixed on the phrase "prone to leave the God I love." How very accurate those words are to describe my actions, especially right now.

I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I have a deep, solid testimony of the Gospel and of Them. However, as was recently evidenced, when I am feeling keenly vulnerable and the fear/panic begins to escalate, my tendency is to abandon the Savior instead of running to Him--which is terribly ironic because my fear is to be abandoned, yet that is exactly what I am doing to Him!

A Better Choreographer Than Kenny Oretega

I didn't know anything was wrong; I just went to her desk because...well...I felt like I should. The feeling to do so was nothing spectacular, just a quiet thought to my mind that I heeded before I even realized what I was doing. Even after I arrived at my friend/colleague's office and spent some time with her, I didn't think I was doing anything out of the ordinary: I was simply enjoying time with my friend.

What Heavenly Father knew that I didn't know was that my friend had had a very stressful day. He recognized it and wanted to comfort her. So He sent me (only I didn't realize what He was doing at the time). She was important to Him, and He wanted to bless her.

I feel great joy knowing that Heavenly Father allowed me to (unknowingly) help my friend this evening with what He knew she needed. I feel joy not because I participated but because He helped someone I care about and I was able to see how He works. He was the one who comforted my friend; He was the one who knew what she needed; I just happened to be around to "answer the call" so-to-speak.

If Heavenly Father is mindful of my friend and her feelings, certainly He is mindful of me and what I feel...right?