Lost for Words

Ok, so my honorary niece's baptism is less than 24 hours away and I am still stuck on what kind of message to write in her card. Yeah, I know that she is only 8 months old and can't read yet, but I would like to say something meaningful that she can read later on in life. My gift is already a bit unconventional. So I figured if I write out the reason for the gift I chose then maybe I can figure out what to say.

First, it took me a while to figure out what to get her. I am not a godparent so the typical baptism gifts aren't appropriate for me to get. I hear that getting the baby Certificates of Deposit or starting education funds are now popular gifts. Well, I don't have the money for that. So needless to say I was having a really hard time with this, because I really didn't want to show up empty-handed tomorrow (although, my friend wouldn't care anyway since my showing up would be gift enough). So, after much debating I decided to purchase a flock of chicks through Heifer International.

Heifer International, for those of you who don't know, is a nonprofit organization that works internationally to end hunger and poverty. The general idea about the program goes like this: Heifer gives animals (through donations) to an impoverish family somewhere around the world. Heifer teaches the family how to take care of the animals and the environment. The family then is able to use the by-products of the animal to either feed themselves or earn income to help send children to school or other basic needs that ordinarily wouldn't be obtainable otherwise. And, as part of the contract for receiving the animal, that family would have to show the same generosity by giving another family the offspring of their Heifer animal and teach them how to take care of it. Therefore, an entire village or town could eventually become self-sufficient. Also, the people in that town or village could reside in peace since they wouldn't be starving or too poor to meet other basic needs.

My thinking is how cool would it be to tie the start of her spiritual journey to this. After all isn't that what Jesus was really getting at with his lessons about loving your neighbor as you would yourself. For me, the most important lesson Jesus ever gave to the world is the Golden Rule: In everything do to others as you would have them do to you. (Mk 7:12) This lesson really sums up the many ways Jesus teaches about how love should be the center of all you do. And, the other thing that I find so appealing about this lesson is that anyone, regardless of religious practice, can apply this in their everyday life. So maybe if everyone applied this simple but not-so-simple rule to their everyday activities, we might not have war, racism, sexism (or other "isms" for that matter), or live in fear, intolerance, greed that plague people in general.

So, my thinking is that if I can figure out an eloquent way to word how this donation ties into Jesus' teachings, then I can contribute in a small way to the foundation of my honorary niece's spiritual journey.