fasting for haiti

photo credit: tequila minsky
yesterday in church we had a lesson about our heavenly families. we talked about how we are all children of God and how that affects how we view ourselves and how we go about our lives.

it made me think of all our brothers and sisters in haiti, and how insanely scary and sorrowful and desperate their lives must be right now. i am not so good at thinking of others before myself. i know it's human nature to focus on our own little families, our own little section of the world, and i am very good at human nature.

but if i were good at being like Jesus and filled with His love, i think i would be thinking far more about haiti than i am. i know it's a far away place that i've never been to, but that doesn't change the fact that we are all part of the same family, and that we are all children of Heavenly Parents who love us all.

i was reading about the conditions in haiti, and looking at pictures here. some of the pictures are extremely disturbing, but i thought, who i am to close my eyes and look away? for these people, this is their reality right now. they can't escape from it.

i'm not suggesting wallowing or anything of the sort. i was praying last night and the thing that kept coming into my head was fasting. i read somewhere that a lot of the people in the affected areas have not eaten for days. i think i can go without food for 24 hours and give the money that i would've spent to the red cross, or doctors without borders, or lds humanitarian services. maybe going without food for that long will help me in some small way to understand what the people of haiti are going through.

if you'd like to join me i'll be fasting tomorrow, tuesday, january 19th, one week after the earthquake hit.

p.s. i decided to do my fasting one day later just because i posted this so late. so anyway, wednesday. of course if you choose to you can fast whenever you want!