I have had little Jane and adoption on my heart all day. One of those days where I have been thinking about orphans all day and every child that walked into my office made me think about one just like them without a family. It kills me. Causes me actual physical pain.
I have had a selfish week. I really don't know how else to put it. I have been a such a little brat all week. I have been dwelling on things that really aren't that big of a deal. I got caught up in the nasty comparison game and started feeling a little bad for myself for the things I lack. I lost sight this week of what matters. I lost sight of what is truly important to me.
I came across this post and couldn't have said it better myself. I am a waste of space on this earth if I forget that my purpose it to love others. Regardless of my job or finances or anything else. I am worthless if I think I am here only to be comfortable. I am way off if I am more worried about having extra money to fix up my house than about saving extra money for our adoption or helping others adopt. Why this is such a constant battle I will never know. But what I know for sure is that God designed us to start new each day and beg him to make our hearts like his. I have to beg away the selfishness each day. Thank goodness God can change our hearts!!
Enjoy this post. I had to smile reading the part about the couple talking about adoption in bed. No words can describe the feeling of hearing God call you specifically to something and saying yes. It gives me chills just thinking about it! If you honestly ask God what he wants from you he will reveal it....no doubt! Fear literally morphs into joy!! Its such an amazing, supernatural thing.
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
~ Mother Teresa
Image with me for a minute…
Right now, today… you are small and alone.
You are hungry and lost.
You have no home, no parents, and seemingly no future.
You are scared, and weak, from days without food. You have no where to go, no where to be.
People walk by you but they don’t even look your way.
It’s like you are invisible, nothing.
You keep walking, your feet are bleeding and sore… and yet still you manage to cling to the small bit of hope, the little voice inside your head that says maybe, just maybe, one day things will get better.
Maybe one day -you will matter.
It is getting dark outside- inside your fear is growing.
Where will you go?
Your heart is beating faster, and your fear becomes over whelming, consuming your every thought.
Then you see it, a dirty, broken cardboard box and you bow your head thanking God for His provision.
For you have found it- shelter.
Safety, if only for one night.
You slip underneath it, hugging yourself, vowing once again not to cry- because by now you know tears are a waste of your strength.
Your eyes become heavy, despite the sweltering temperature.
As you begin to drift off to sleep you pray, hoping, dreaming, of a family of your own one day...
of a place where you will matter...
to someone.
Half away around the world is a family...
They are just sitting down to dinner together.
They are smiling and their laughter fills the room.
Dinner is served and they bow their heads and they pray- thanking God for their many blessings… their home, their job, the food that is set before them.
They lift their heads and go back to the laughter and the joy.
They talk of their upcoming vacation plans, the lunch date they shared with a friend today and the movie they plan to see this coming weekend.
More laughter, more excitement, more.
As the leftovers are scraped into the garbage can and the table is cleaned up, hot bubble bathes are taken by all.
Evening settles in, and the family slips under their down comforters preparing for a good nights sleep.
Before turning out the lights, the husband leans over to kiss his wife good-night. She shyly smiles at him and begins to tell him that she has been feeling that perhaps God is calling them to adopt.
The room grows quiet as they are both lost in their own thoughts… their minds are flooded with questions, concern, and then inevitably -fear.
How could they manage?
Another child?
Why, they already have two!
Where would they put the child?
Who would share a room?
How could they afford to adopt?
Would they be able to take that vacation?
What would people think?
What if the child, you know, caused ‘problems’?
As their eyelids become heavy, they begin to drift off to sleep... and they think to themselves ‘surely not’.
Surely God knows this is not convenient.
Surely God wants them to take that vacation they deserve...
Surely he knows how busy they are.
They have plans and they have dreams.
As sleep overcomes them, the temperature in their master bedroom is perfect… and their pillows are fluffed to perfection.
Life is good for them, just as they had planned...
Because after all, they matter...
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. "- 1 John 3:16-20
