The one definate blessing of this adoption journey is that our walk with God has been front and center. It actually is very surreal and a true blessing. This morning - after a long painful night for little man - I decided I need some time to jsut be in the word. I didn't have a plan, or a thought, I jsut picked up my husband's open bible and it was open to a page description about Barnabas which was placed between Acts 13:12 & Acts 13:13.
Now let me tell you that I don't know much about Barnabas but I jsut knew that this was the page I needed to read today. Barnabas was an encourager and brought many people to Christ through his encouragement and being a Godly man. It said that "Barnabas was rarely in a situation where there isn't someone we can encourage. Our tendency, however, is to criticize instead. "
Lessons learned from his life:
Encouragement is one of the most effective ways to help
Sooner or later, true obedience to God will involve risk
There is always someone who needs encouragement
WOW!!
Then I opened up to a different page (ok I kind of cheated as I LOVE psalms and my fingers know where they are in the bible.) BUT I opened up to Psalm 100 - called a psalm for giving thanks. I think of Thanksgiving as turkeys of family.
A Psalm for [a]Thanksgiving.
1 Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing. 3 Know that the LORD [b]Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and [c]not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with [d]thanksgiving And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5 For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.
Reading this Psalm I realized that the end when I can wrap my arms around our sweet children is not the only time to be thankful. I need to be thankful for the delays, for the heartache and for this journey. For the amazing people I have met on this journey. Yes, I still can't wait until the end, but even then it will only be the beginning.
Sorry this is so long!
I wondered why Barnabas was brought to me today. Then it dawned on me that all the unrest in my heart could be easily solved by asking you to help pray for my big boy.
This sweet boy is in the midst of tryouts for football. He has a group of friends that all have the nicest most Godly spirits. They are all also phenomenal athletes. As 7th graders they must tryout and either get on the travel team or intramurals. He so wants to play with his buddies, and I am sure a lot of my turmoil comes from my own days of not making teams and friends. Our big boy is not as natural of an athlete as his friends, but he is finding his way. This mothers heart also hurts knowing that because of little man's health issues, our big boy missed the first few years his friends played football together.
Did I mention that he has the best heart! So please can you pray that either he makes the team with his friends or that I have the words of encouragement to help him through this journey.
Now let me tell you that I don't know much about Barnabas but I jsut knew that this was the page I needed to read today. Barnabas was an encourager and brought many people to Christ through his encouragement and being a Godly man. It said that "Barnabas was rarely in a situation where there isn't someone we can encourage. Our tendency, however, is to criticize instead. "
Lessons learned from his life:
Encouragement is one of the most effective ways to help
Sooner or later, true obedience to God will involve risk
There is always someone who needs encouragement
WOW!!
Then I opened up to a different page (ok I kind of cheated as I LOVE psalms and my fingers know where they are in the bible.) BUT I opened up to Psalm 100 - called a psalm for giving thanks. I think of Thanksgiving as turkeys of family.
A Psalm for [a]Thanksgiving.
1 Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing. 3 Know that the LORD [b]Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and [c]not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with [d]thanksgiving And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5 For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.
Reading this Psalm I realized that the end when I can wrap my arms around our sweet children is not the only time to be thankful. I need to be thankful for the delays, for the heartache and for this journey. For the amazing people I have met on this journey. Yes, I still can't wait until the end, but even then it will only be the beginning.
Sorry this is so long!
This sweet boy is in the midst of tryouts for football. He has a group of friends that all have the nicest most Godly spirits. They are all also phenomenal athletes. As 7th graders they must tryout and either get on the travel team or intramurals. He so wants to play with his buddies, and I am sure a lot of my turmoil comes from my own days of not making teams and friends. Our big boy is not as natural of an athlete as his friends, but he is finding his way. This mothers heart also hurts knowing that because of little man's health issues, our big boy missed the first few years his friends played football together.
Did I mention that he has the best heart! So please can you pray that either he makes the team with his friends or that I have the words of encouragement to help him through this journey.
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