My grandpa used to say that you could never lose when you choose to invest in people.
As I’ve begun to grow up and start to experience a tiny bit of the adventures that life has in store for me, I’ve found his words to be wonderfully true. When we choose to put our time, resources, energy, love and support into someone faithfully, we are rewarded beyond measure through their sweet friendship and God’s blessings, a fulfillment better than any other.
What exactly does it mean to invest in a person, though?
To invest in someone is to give something of yourself in order to better someone else’s life, whether it be through your time, energy, prayer, or finances. Investing is kind of like gardening. You prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water them constantly, and wait. With patience, you gain a beautiful plot of sprouts that will erupt into full bloom. Not only can new seeds grow, but with the proper love and investment, a skilled gardener can even bring restoration to wilted blossoms. In the act of gardening and in life, there is one simple goal: to nurture something into growth.
With such a beautiful outcome, it may make you wonder why more people don’t invest in each other. An answer that I’ve arrived at is that investing in someone requires sacrifice. It requires you to live selflessly for a moment, to think of that person as more important than yourself. It may not sound super fun to live to serve others, but I’ve found that when I invest in others my own life ends up being changed even more than that of those I’ve served.
It’s funny how living outside of ourselves can make not only the world, but even our own simple lives, great.
With this goal to make the world a better place, Beautiful Dream Society makes it a top priority to invest in the children of Lesotho, a small country landlocked by South Africa. BDS currently has legal guardianship of 11 children in Lesotho, where over 150,000 children are left as orphans. Plagued with disease, it’s estimated that over 10% of the population is living with HIV, which causes the deaths of many parents. This leaves the orphans vulnerable and in need of care.
Beautiful Dream Society invests in the lives of these children by educating the public about traffickers who may take advantage of them, raising funds and awareness, and taking children into our care at a family-style home. In the home, children are provided with medical care, and nutritional, relational, and educational needs. In order to overcome the general lack of education in Lesotho’s population, BDS conducts classes for the children and also works with partners, such as the Pearl Alliance, to provide scholarships for those that dream of higher education, a feat not easily accomplished without outside help.
Investing in the lives of these children leads to restoration, and seeing their lives being made beautiful, despite what the norms say their lives should end up like.
As I’ve been working on this post, the song “No Longer Slaves” by Bethel Music came on. If you’re not familiar with it, the lyrics say “I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God”. I see this song as an anthem for each and every one of us. How much more true could it be for the sweet children that have seen restoration through the love of Christ in Lesotho?
You can invest in the lives of the children in Lesotho by doing the following:
- Pray for the protection and restoration of the orphans in Lesotho.
- Share this post on your social media in order to raise awareness.
- Sponsor the children that BDS cares for by donating to the Lesotho efforts here.
Laura Loftin, Intern for Beautiful Dream Society
Resources:
“UNAIDS.” Lesotho. UNAIDS, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.