Feeling Battle Weary? Remember Irena

My husband and I watched a movie Saturday night that was very convicting and humbling. It made me realize how much more effort I could be putting forth into doing good for others-even just my own children.

We watched a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie that was about Irena Sendler. I had heard a sermon preached about her, and that was all I knew concerning her life. She lived during the Holocaust, and rescued 2500 Jewish Children from the Ghetto, and smuggled them to Polish families or to Catholic Orphanages. Those families took them in and raised them up until the war was over, and their parents returned, or continued to raise them if their families never did return-which I'm sure happened many times over.

Irena's own father died from typhoid given to him from taking care of Jews. He was one of the first Polish Socialists. He taught Irena that "if you see a person drowning, you must jump into the water to save them, whether you can swim or not." Irena took that to heart, and later it would be very evident in her life that she jumped in to help save people who were drowning-they were about to be killed.

Irena was a social worker who had links with Zegota, the code name for The Council For Aid To The Jews. She was sent into the Ghetto - a place where the Jews were contained until they were sent to death camps. She brought them food, water, and a vaccination against typhoid. Quickly she realized that the best way she could help them would be to start smuggling the children out.

After enlisting the aid of some other social workers, she started smuggling children out with gunnysacks, suitcases, and coffins. An ambulance driver smuggled children out underneath stretchers. One six month old baby was smuggled out in a mechanics tool box. That baby would later show her thanks by taking care of Irena at the end of her life.

Irena was finally caught, and tortured horribly. Even after her legs and feet were broken, and she was permanently scarred, she never betrayed the system that rescued those children, or the children themselves. She was sentenced to death, but the Zegota were able to bribe some guards to release her.

She lived until she was 98, and passed away in 2008. Her story is amazing; her bravery to give up her life for the sake of children she would never see again is beautiful.

Learning more about her left me reflecting on the battles that we fight today. We are so blessed that in our country we do not live in such horrid times as she did. We have much freedom, even though it is slowly being taken. We still have a great many blessings and freedoms to be thankful for.

What do we have to fight against for our children's sake?

I believe it is the culture we fight. We fight to train our children to stay on course - follow the path that is laid before them. We fight to train them to forsake the world - to be in it but not of it. Some of us have family "persecution" (believe me, with a lower case "p" compared to Irena's story) by the choices we make for our families. Sometimes this fight leaves us feeling all alone.

As for me and my house....

We fight against Adultery-we teach our children that when you take your vows it is a promise before God that you will remain faithful to each other (in every way) for the rest of your life.

We fight for the sanctity of marriage-that the ONLY way marriage can be blessed by God are those marriages between a man and a woman. Marriage is not between a man and man, or a woman and a woman. We try to support companies who uphold this, and we try very hard as a family to not support companies where homosexual lifestyles are openly supported-Target, Home Depot, and McDonald's being three of the most prominent that we know of.

We fight against the holocaust of our day - the many unborn babies who die before ever being cherished in their mothers' arms. Every day in America an average of 3,700 children die from abortion. It is estimated that 11-17 million people died during the Holocaust. Each year, an estimated 50 million children die from abortion.

We fight for our freedoms to remain - freedom to raise our children how we see fit. Not how the government sees fit.

We fight against the culture that teaches children to grow up showing disrespect for their parents; that you need a boyfriend/girlfriend at 13; that once you hit 18 you can't wait to leave home. We fight for modesty, for purity, for virtue - in short we fight for scriptural truths.

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong."

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14

Keep pressing onward and upward!