As a young girl, I would go with my great grandmother to get groceries at the first of the month with her food stamps booklets. She was an elderly lady on a fixed income raising a child whose parents weren’t.

As a newly abandoned mom of four on unpaid maternity leave, I took my wic and EBT card and fed my kids. I was a proud woman who had worked since age 13 to pay my own way but found myself in overwhelming life circumstances that called for humility and help.

Sometimes good, honest, hard-working people find themselves needing government assistance. Or just help in general. My guess is that there are more people in that category who will lose aid than the ones who abuse the system. It is not our place to judge. But it’s also not solely the government’s place to help.

As that young girl, I remember a man showing up at our front door with Christmas gifts and a stocking full of fruit and candy.

As that single mom of four, I remember many, many times that people from our church or community showed up at my front door with meals or to help with childcare or gave money to help us get by.

The Bible does not tell the government to support the poor and needy. It calls us Christians to do so and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This sad time of decreased government assistance to so many families around us might be a great time for Christians to answer that Biblical call.