A Buffet of Blessing

This week, Ling, the waitress at the Chinese restaurant, asked me where she could purchase some of the flashcards that I have been using in the English class with her and the others. I was confused at first as to why she would be wanting to buy some, but then she was able to convey to me what was on her heart.
You see, Ling has two little boys who are still in China with their grandmother. They are 3 and 5 years old. She has her heart set on learning English well enough to teach her little ones when they are finally able to join her in the States in another a year. The sacrifices these precious little people are willing to make to enable them to better their lives in the US are astonishing. Ling and her husband Peter had to come over ahead of the children too see if they could get a foothold in the US. They work long, hard hours together to make it possible to get established in order to bring their children.
Ling's dream is to have her children over here and become a stay-at-home mom, but for now she is making a huge sacrifice to make that happen. She may be "suffering" right now, but she has her eye and her heart set on a future time when things will be much different. She is not living for the here-and-now. She is living for a brighter day. For now, she will endure the heartache, the loneliness, the long work hours, the tears of the little ones crying for their momma over the phone. She knows it will be worth it all one day soon.
It seems to me that we Christians could learn a lesson from Ling. It seems we too could strive and struggle and suffer hardship and heartache right now without shrinking from it, because we indeed have a brighter day ahead. We should live for that day instead of for the here-and-now. We should and could endure hardness if we have our eyes set on a new day. That is how Ling makes it from day to day. Her focus is on a brighter day.
It is my prayer and my heart's desire that by the time her little ones arrive, she will have something far more important than just English to teach them. It is my heart's desire that the blinders will come off and Ling will see her need for a Saviour and be gloriously saved. It is my heart's desire that she will long to tell her little ones of the One who died for them - the One who loves the Chinese as much as the American.
But, for today, my buffet of blessing is that I have the honor and privilege of Ling referring to me as her "jao peng you" (Chinese for "very good friend"), and I have the honor of being her English teacher. What a mighty God we serve!