This is a busy time of year, so instead of a task or a challenge, I want to offer you some encouragement. Pretty soon we’re going to be evaluating our lives, reflecting on 2010, and setting New Year’s resolutions. So as you’re considering your accomplishments of the past year as well as new potential goals, know this:

You are changing lives.

Really.

It may be hard to see in the letters from your sponsored child. Perhaps they’re still formal in tone. Perhaps your child hasn’t answered your questions yet. Maybe you wait a long time for a letter. Maybe you (like me) get caught up in things and sometimes forget to write.

I want you to think of the letter-writing process (and sponsorship in general) a little differently. Try to imagine your child in 10 or 15 years. Imagine him learning how to work hard to provide for his new family. Imagine her holding the hand of her own child. Now consider Psalm 102:18:

Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.

This is one of my favorite verses. I remember stumbling across it during a devotional and wondering if the psalmist knew the depth of that promise – that thousands of years later, I would read it and praise the Lord.

I pray a lot for my girls’ futures. But beyond their schooling or the opportunities that education presents, I don’t often consider the impact my sponsorship has.

But it’s changed my perspective a bit. Namely, the letters I write, the truth and encouragement I share – all of these things could be shared with a future generation. With Sovanna or Munni’s children.

Maybe Sovanna and Munni will read my letters to their children. Maybe they will tell a story about how something I wrote or sent changed the way they thought about themselves or pursued school. Maybe my sponsorship influenced the way they approached God, and that changed everything.

I’m not angling for accolades here. In fact, thinking through that verse while praying over my girls seemed to add a layer of responsibility I wasn’t expecting. But I also found it encouraging that God would use my words and the money I entrusted to Him to impact generations long after me.

So as you receive the Christmas card from your sponsored child, as you look over that swirling handwriting and colorful activities on the back, think of those future generations. Think of the potential. Think of the way that by your simple act of responding to a call, of choosing to give from what’s been given to you, a life – and as a result, many lives – will be changed. Because transforming the life of one child mattered to you.