A Different Kind of Thanks
Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people. 1 Chronicles 16:8
I am a little behind in blogging, and this Thanksgiving blog post is a little late coming, but I have been extraordinarily busy loving on a little bald guy :) Please forgive me...
This year, we obviously have so much to be thankful for. Not only the warm home, our jobs, my being able to realize my dream of becoming a Nurse Practitioner & being blessed to be able to pursue & succeed in becoming one... our amazing marriage full of laughter, affection, & true teenage-style love... a fantastic supportive family and group of friends, and a church family that accepts & loves us as well as challenges us to become humble followers of Christ and to tell our community of His love... the list could go on & on. And this year, we give thanks for our little tiny blessing. Zane is ours to love, to teach, to guide, and to be called parents of! Literally, for years, we had been told we would not become parents "the natural way". But adoption IS natural - it's God's plan for us all to care for the widows & orphans (James 1:27) - and our "bridge" to God was to be "adopted" into His family through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. So clearly adoption is natural. And perhaps it was not God's intent that T. become pregnant out of wedlock, or for her to endure heartache from being separated from Zane, or for her to be alienated by the people she always thought supported her (by choosing adoption). But God turned this situation into a blessing - one we will always be thankful for.
Zane simply is amazing.
But tonight I want to also offer a different kind of thanks. We don't often thank God for the trials and hardships... why would we?! That's why they're called HARDships!! They are tough, they make us cry & worry & lose sleep and wonder if God is really there, if He's really listening, if He really cares... or even if He hates us. Believe me, I (being the not-perfect-Christian that I am) had those thoughts at some point or another in this journey. And I know many of you have also, from reading literally hundreds of emails and facebook messages telling me so.
But without those trials, where would we be? For me...
Would I want to go through that faith-test again? Probably not! :) So many of us say, "If only I had known..." Well if we'd only known how tough the road was going to be, we would have taken the easy road. And we wouldn't have received the perfect promise God had in store. We may would have become parents, but it would not have been the way God intended.
How grateful would we be without the trial? Not very. Not at all. Today, I can sing songs like "I Will Give Thanks" like we did in the choir today and tears stream down my face because I am TRULY thankful. I am so glad He brought me through the fire.
"So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:7
PS - Please read this short but awesome explanation of the concept of the "refiner's fire"!!
"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into many afflictions; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1:2-4, italics are from the JST)
I am offering a different kind of thanks this year.
I am a little behind in blogging, and this Thanksgiving blog post is a little late coming, but I have been extraordinarily busy loving on a little bald guy :) Please forgive me...
This year, we obviously have so much to be thankful for. Not only the warm home, our jobs, my being able to realize my dream of becoming a Nurse Practitioner & being blessed to be able to pursue & succeed in becoming one... our amazing marriage full of laughter, affection, & true teenage-style love... a fantastic supportive family and group of friends, and a church family that accepts & loves us as well as challenges us to become humble followers of Christ and to tell our community of His love... the list could go on & on. And this year, we give thanks for our little tiny blessing. Zane is ours to love, to teach, to guide, and to be called parents of! Literally, for years, we had been told we would not become parents "the natural way". But adoption IS natural - it's God's plan for us all to care for the widows & orphans (James 1:27) - and our "bridge" to God was to be "adopted" into His family through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. So clearly adoption is natural. And perhaps it was not God's intent that T. become pregnant out of wedlock, or for her to endure heartache from being separated from Zane, or for her to be alienated by the people she always thought supported her (by choosing adoption). But God turned this situation into a blessing - one we will always be thankful for.
Zane simply is amazing.
But tonight I want to also offer a different kind of thanks. We don't often thank God for the trials and hardships... why would we?! That's why they're called HARDships!! They are tough, they make us cry & worry & lose sleep and wonder if God is really there, if He's really listening, if He really cares... or even if He hates us. Believe me, I (being the not-perfect-Christian that I am) had those thoughts at some point or another in this journey. And I know many of you have also, from reading literally hundreds of emails and facebook messages telling me so.
But without those trials, where would we be? For me...
- We wouldn't have Zane. We could have given up. Or God could have decided we couldn't handle it.
- We wouldn't have had the opportunity to show Christ and His love to a hurting girl in Oklahoma. I hope we changed her life, for the better.
- We wouldn't have witnessed so many of you all's faith be restored in a loving, FAITHFUL GOD.
- We wouldn't have been vessels for God to use. How humbling... for him to choose me.
- My faith would not have been stretched beyond the point I ever thought possible. Before we started this adoption journey, I had such a weak little faith. Puny. Like I believed in God and that He was good and that He loved me and wanted what was best for me. But that was about it. I learned so much about faith... that you don't have to be perfect to have it... it truly is stepping out into the darkness - not "hoping" but KNOWING that he will catch me... that you must face "failure" in order to receive the promise He has for you.
Would I want to go through that faith-test again? Probably not! :) So many of us say, "If only I had known..." Well if we'd only known how tough the road was going to be, we would have taken the easy road. And we wouldn't have received the perfect promise God had in store. We may would have become parents, but it would not have been the way God intended.
How grateful would we be without the trial? Not very. Not at all. Today, I can sing songs like "I Will Give Thanks" like we did in the choir today and tears stream down my face because I am TRULY thankful. I am so glad He brought me through the fire.
"So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:7
PS - Please read this short but awesome explanation of the concept of the "refiner's fire"!!
"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into many afflictions; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1:2-4, italics are from the JST)
I am offering a different kind of thanks this year.
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