The truth about my birthday; this isn't me!

A week ago today was my 16th birthday. On that day I started my Sweet Sixteen for Sonrise campaign to raise $1600 for Sonrise Ministries.

In the seven days I've been working on this, I've been able to raise over $1000 (2/3 of the way there!!!), had (according to GoFundMe) around 60+ people share the campaign, sold a few t-shirts, & had countless people tell me how wonderful it is & how great I am for doing this for my birthday.

But really, that's just not the truth.

I haven't raised a dollar.

Since the start of this campaign, it's been something I truly believe God wants me to be doing,  all I've done since that day is say yes, over & over every single day, & let Him take care of the rest.

Here's the truth:

Every day that I haven't started the day, before I posted a word or sent messages to people or tried to come up with another way to get the word out, by praying for this to be about God & not myself, not one person donated. No matter how many people I sent messages to about it or how many times I shared it or how many people liked the picture I posted, I didn't raise anything if I didn't start with prayer.

But,  on days when I keep the focus on God & what He can do & not what I can do, & praying for Him to come through in ways I couldn't possibly make happen alone, on days when I prayed about what I posted & asked God all day long to show Himself through this, those are the days that I've raised hundreds of dollars in one day.

I refuse to believe that could possibly a coincidence or all about timing, not when I've closed my computer & stopped working to pray when I realized I hadn't done so yet that day, & shortly after gotten messages from people who later gave generous donations. Not when the days that I start it right & the days that I don't look so radically different.

The truth is this isn't me! Nothing that has been raised by this campaign has been my doing.

I cannot take the credit for this. It isn't because I designed a cool t-shirt or because I'm such a great person, I'm not. I will not take the credit & I can't let people glorify me for any of this.

This has never been about me, it's not about my birthday, (let's be real, none of these people who have donated would've been giving me birthday gifts anyway), it's not even about Sonrise. It's about saying yes to God & Him getting the glory.

Everything that has happened over the last week has been God-orchestrated, I didn't convince anyone to donate, I didn't changed people's minds or get them to stop scrolling long enough to read my post, or take the time to give 20 or 50 or 100 dollars. None of this has been me or my doing. It's been God, He has this power, I don't.

I'm not doing anything incredible, I said yes because it was really the only choice.

Because caring for God's children isn't an option, it's not a suggestion, it's not something I'm "called" to that you're not. It's a command found over & over again in His Word, all I did was choose to obey it.

So please, don't tell me what a great thing I'm doing, don't tell me you admire me & don't tell me how awesome it is that I've done all this already.

Instead praise God that He cares about his children & thank Him for His love for every one of us, because that's what this is really all about.

p.s. if you want to be a part of what God is doing, you can donate to the campaign here