If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?
-David Livingstone
I just stumbled on this quote on a website. I fell in love. It SO spoke to my heart. It was the balm God had intended to soothe this soul.
You see, yesterday we were given a little peek into an opposing view. It seems that at least one person out there believes we are “ruining Raegan’s and Alex’s lives” by adopting our littles. I probably don’t have to tell you that this Momma-Bear got hot in a hurry! Thankfully, my awesome husband broke this news to me when we were tucked safely in our home alone.
It’s not that I expect the whole world to agree with us, hardly. I know there will be those who think we’ve lost it, and I am fine with that. These words though, these words hurt. Deep. They hurt because our littles may not be ours legally yet, but they are ours in our hearts. You don’t mess with my babies and this felt like an attack not on me or us, but on my babies. Even typing this out my blood starts pumping faster within these veins of mine.
We’ve heard other lunacy of course as we’ve been on this journey. Satan has effectively put the blinders on many people, which is a huge part of the reason there continues to be an orphan crisis around the world if you ask me.
Alright, this all brings me back to the Livingstone quote above. Why is it that this is EXACTLY how so many consider serving the God of the Universe? Begrudgingly. Sacrificially. Moaning and groaning and sad faces. Yes, the Lord calls us to hard places sometimes. Yes, He calls us to leave things behind. Yes, He changes the landscape of our lives. Yes, He grows us and nurtures us and loves us. He disciplines us and disciples us. Sometimes change, growth, discipline is painful. None of it happens out of anything other than His LOVE for us. None of it.
Please don’t ever look on anything our family is doing as sacrifice to God. It is privilege. It is our honor to serve alongside our Jesus. It is our awesome privilege to walk this path of faith with God. Do me a favor and look on our journey with awe, but not sympathy. Regardless of the road ahead it is all because of LOVE. His love for us and our love for Him and His…and the ones He entrusts to our care whether by biological means, legal means, or just pure and simple heartstrings.
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Chasity is a daughter of the Father, a wife to her soulmate, and mother to 2 children by birth and 2 by heart strings whom they are in the process of adopting very soon. She blogs about life, faith, adoption, orphans, and the occasional random rambling at All Things His.
i give this a big fat ‘amen’! this mindset of sacrifice sure keeps alot of us (me included!) from experiencing the wonderful joy and a greater level of intimacy with Christ that comes from stepping out in his purposes. blessings to you as you move forward!
Wow! What an awesome quote! And what an awesome post! We are on our fourth adoption and I have been hesitant to announce it, due to the negative comments we’re sure to get. Somehow it makes me feel better knowing we’re not the only ones. Thank you so much for this post. God bless you in your adoption. May God honor you as you seek to honor Him.
good morning from Canada
I loved you quote from Livingstone…so very true…..Just want to encourage you with our story. We have adopted three children 2 boys from Korea and one girl from China. We received the call asking if we were interested in adopting our daughter because she was the only child without a family match from the special needs pile. We were not in the program for special needs…wanted to be …….so to be asked is from above. NExt we needed to scramble for cash.. We had NONE. Child rich…money poor. We ventured on waiting to see how He would make it work. Free police checks from police friends….free update on homestudy from social worker?? amazing….credit line…and still short.
Fast track ahead….. Sunday morning I check my emails and there is message from our agency stating China had increased the fees by another 2000 dollars. I cried and told hubby that I did not think we were being wise putting ourselves into debt. His words were…I guess God is going to have to shine and make it really clear it is His plan not our. I admired his encouraging words but had my doubts…At church that morning someone handed us a cheque for 1800 dollars… We were still short and needing some help with resources tapped out from the previous 2 adoptions.
The next day an old friend calls my husband to do a tile job for her. She live 2.5 hours away…not something he usually will do.. ….they made a deal where my husband was going to take the trip up to her home because he felt it was a God thing and he needed to follow up on it. The gal calls back 15 minutes later and says oh my goodness I have dialled your number by accident…but by the way how is the adoption thing going….do you have enough money. My husband replies well not yet but we are working on it…
She then said …I will come and see you instead of you driving here and I will bring some money to help out. My husband is thrilled he did not need to drive but thinking the money she will be able to help with will be minimal…we needed 10 thousand( 4 days before leaving) YIKES! Fast track ahead..she shows up two days before we leave with a plastic grocery bag with 10 thousand dollars cash and hands it to my husband. My husband a bit overwhelmed sat down to write her a receipt and she told him there was no need she trusted us. You have to understand my husband had not seen this gal in 20 years and had not talked in 15..and had never met her husband. God is AWESOME and ABLE….let Him do His thing by being willing . For the doubters…thats my story. Now as we continue to pay off our loan we KNOW she was suppose to be ours….He made sure we never doubted His plan. Smiles Janet