Hope
HOPE: What is HOPE? The dictionary defines HOPE as "A feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing to happen." HOPE is essential to our perseverance, our getting through the tough times. Without HOPE we give up.
Many people today, including children and even animals, have lost HOPE. Their situations are bleak and they feel there is no one who will understand what they are going through and no one that can help them see past it. HOPE requires one thing though, TRUST .
WAYR wants to show that there is someone who understands, whether it is a volunteer that has been through a similar situation, or a horse that has come from terrible conditions. And ultimately Whispering Angels hopes that the children and families that they serve can find HOPE in the One that will never abandon them, God.
Job 11:18- "HOPE gives us Courage."
These children need the HOPE to face the situations they are in. WAYR wants them to have HOPE.
Healing
There is a special bond between two, that have felt the same pain and endured the same struggles. Those with similar pasts feel as if they can share anything with one another, never being judged for what they feel or say. HEALING happens when we find that "other" who will listen and help us through the struggle.
HEALING happens when we are able to share things that have been kept a secret, and we now have someone to share them with.
HEALING happens knowing that our "other" will be silent, just listening, so we can let it all out.
WAYR wants children to experience true HEALING. Horses have a way of drawing us in, making us feel like they know exactly what we are feeling and thinking. When a child has that... THAT is where the HEALING begins.
Love
LOVE is not confined, nor is it a feeling. LOVE is a commitment based upon a consistent and courageous decision to extend oneself for the well-being of another. That commitment then produces good feelings, not the other way around.
Jesus became the perfect demnstration of God's unconditional LOVE for us by laying down His life for our benefit.
Children can tell when they are LOVED and when they are not. If they do not receive that LOVE they eventually replace it with a wall and feel as if no one could ever LOVE them. They might feel as though they are "unloveable". Once that happens, Proof is needed.
A horse can be hard to LOVE sometimes because we misinterpret what they want. A child can be similar. Put them together and walls break down. A mutual understanding can be concluded. Then that "proof" is experienced.
Whether through a horse or through a volunteer, LOVE can be received in the simplest of things. Just brushing a horse is showing LOVE. The horse and child feel it. They share it. WAYR wants each child to receive the unconditional LOVE that is needed.
LOVE is patient and kind LOVE does not envy or boast
LOVE is not proud or rude LOVE does not insist on its own way
LOVE is not easily angered LOVE keeps no record of wrongs
LOVE does not rejoice with wrong but with the TRUTH
LOVE always protects LOVE always TRUSTS
LOVE always HOPES LOVE always endures
LOVE NEVER FAILS
I Cornithians 13:4-7
Acceptance
ACCEPTANCE does not come from what the color of your skin is, or how tall or short you are, or how thin or heavy you are, not even where you come from. ACCEPTANCE comes from your heart. It comes before LOVE and HEALING happen. ACCEPTANCE is where HOPE begins.
Every child should be ACCEPTED, but they aren't always. A horse doesn't care about as to "why" you need to be ACCEPTED. They just know you NEED to be ACCEPTED. A horse is ACCEPTING despite the circumstances. They give freely of their heart so that you may find HOPE. From HOPE... LOVE begins. Once a child finds those things... HEALING can start. A horse knows this.