Baskets & Adoption

This morning I was busy rushing about doing the daily chores and getting ready. In the midst of it, our eight year old (adopted from China) just spurted out how she was just dumped in a street in China in a basket.  We have never kept any part of her adoption story from her so it was not a surprise that she knew.  However, the disgust in her voice was new.  Immediately our hearts were breaking together.  I could not love a child more than I love this girl.  She is so amazing and loves the Lord more than anyone I have ever known (young or old).  But she felt thrown away.

If you doubt the Holy Spirit. . .I wish you could have been there at that moment. He graciously gave every word to say to her. Praise Him!!!! Immediately, I said to her that her first parents did several very loving things.  For one, they allowed her to live and grow in her mommy's tummy.  Then I told her about Moses.  There are so many similarities.  During Moses' babyhood it was the boys who were in danger for their lives.  But the Lord helped his mother (and sister) care for him and protect him.  When they could no longer protect him, they put him in a basket and watched from a safe distance.  Once someone of authority took him, then they knew he would be safe.

Sometimes we think so harshly of those who don't choose to raise their children themselves but we shouldn't always.  I believe based on adopting three children and one failed adoption that the most unselfish thing a mother can do is seek something better for her child if she is not able.  I cannot imagine having to give up a child.  I nearly was crushed under the weight of giving up a child that I did not birth.  So how could I imagine such.

My dear sweet daughter and I sobbed as we talked about her feelings.  Now we are praying that her first mommy and daddy know Jesus (so she might know them in Heaven).  Praise God for His Word! It truly provides ALL we need to know to live.  His Holy Spirit is incredibly God within us! How could we ask for more? And yet He too adopted us into His family that we might have life eternal!  Praising our Lord and Savior!  I would love to hear some of your adoption stories and the ways the Lord has worked through them. Please feel free to comment and tell your story.

Next Step

It seems our lives are full of next steps.  Certainly lately, our family has been taking very frequent "next steps". There is still so much work to be done that it seems overwhelming at times.  But the good news is that the Lord is working. We are seeing changes and improvements. We are learning and slowly willingly submitting our lives.

This seems like a simple thing but it is not. We live in a time when you can go to church religiously and never "get it".  It is so sad. People are desperately broken.  I know this because it was out of such brokenness that I have begged the Lord's help.  In 2 Corinthians 4:5-12, it talks about us as fragile earthenware vessels.  We truly are.  Think of how many deal with depression, loneliness, unforgiveness, fear, anger, etc.  Often the circumstances of our lives in this broken world are difficult but perhaps the biggest problem is that the heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9).  We believe the lies of the enemy and our own desires. Then we so often loose hope. Without hope what good is anything?

Because of my own journey, I am convinced that knowledge of the Holy Spirit is often what is missing.  Isn't that what seems missing for so many Christians.  How is that? How is it that we can profess to be Christians and yet not realize that the Holy Spirit Himself lives within us? We have the power and presence of our God within us!!!  If He does not live within you, then you are not a Christian.

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." John 14:25-27

I want so badly to experience His spirit even as never before.  I don't want to miss a moment of Him and His work around me.  I was to be a usable vessel that is over flowing with His love which also fills every broken crack.  Fully submitted! Humbled! All His! Nothing held back! That would be daily victory in our King Jesus.

As God gives me such hunger to be closer to Him and in His will, I take another step forward.  Far too often they are baby steps, but I am prayerfully waiting and hoping for what might be a giant step.  Too much has been held back for too long.