An Open Heart (reblog from A Dad’s Journey of Faith) – God's Grace ~ God's Glory! Skip to content God's Grace ~ God's Glory! ~ declaring His kingdom ~ for His glory Menu Search A Golden Treasury A Sheep’s View About BOOKS Contact Lectures Mission Statement MUSIC Videos Search for: Search An Open Heart (reblog from A Dad’s Journey of Faith) On January 11, 2014 January 9, 2014 By francesrogersIn GOD'S GRACE, GOD'S WORD, HUMILITY, Uncategorized On my way into work today….I had one of those interesting conversations with God. I guess it was more like me starting to complain and Him giving me the loving reality feedback that He can give. Many of you know that my wife and I have a huge heart for adoption. It is a journey that our family has been on for several years now. We have grown our family by three in this time and have a forth that is destined to join us as well. Several weeks ago we begin to feel the call to welcome into our home another wonderful child. If you are counting that would put our grand total at 8 children. He is a wonderful 11-year-old boy with some significant medical/developmental needs. Due to these needs there is not a family in the state of Oklahoma willing to take him in. I can’t imagine being told that no one is willing to give you a home. Such began the next leg of our journey. Soon, the enemy being the enemy … began to plant some negative thoughts in my head. You all know the thoughts…the ones that if you give them room will quickly take root. This is what led to my conversation with God this morning. It was during this conversation that God reminded me of the past several years…… I will never forget when we first started talking about going on this journey….We had three children that were all of the age where they pretty much could take care of themselves. The youngest was seven and the oldest was sixteen. We knew that adoption was a journey God wanted us to go on. Our plans were that we would get a little boy around five years old and that would fit nicely into our world. However, God sometimes has other plans. As a result we were blessed with a wonderful little 9 month old little girl. I remember thinking that this was a little different from what I had planned. I reached out to God and explained that this was going to be real Uncomfortable for my family. You see, we had reached a point of comfort in our lives and this was not in the plans. He reminded me that when his Son came to earth…it too was uncomfortable. He traded in the warm beauty and majesty of heaven for a cold and dirty stable…born into a frail human form. He left the right hand of God to lead the simple life of a carpenter’s son. He did not turn from the journey. Soon after the placement we learned that this amazing little girl had a rare life threatening genetic illness that would require extensive medical visits with an uncertain future. We were also told that no one was willing to take her in and her only other option was to go to a shelter and to slowly fade away. I said “Lord…this is going to be too Hard on my family. This is a burden that I don’t know if we can bear” God quietly reminded me how hard it was to send his son into a world that despised him. The difficulty of a ministry of sharing a simple truth that would turn brother against brother in a fallen world. No matter how hard the task..He came. Shortly thereafter, we learned that she had two sisters (age 2 and newborn). There was never a question that they would join our family. We could not imagine the impact of splitting up a sibling group. As they joined our family it became apparent that there were issues relating to a long history of abuse. It was painful to see the impact of true evil on these little ones. There was the emotional impact on one little one and the physical suffering of the other. I cried out..”Lord…This is too painful of a journey for my family to endure.” Once again, God reminded me of Jesus in the garden. He knew His Sons fate at the hands of the wicked. How difficult to look down at your Son and know what was in store for Him. That he would bear the punishment for the sins of a fallen world. However, He stayed. Finally, over the past months the enemy has done a masterful job of pointing out the world around me. Look, he would say…at those that no longer walk with your family. Look…at others your age. They are on vacations, living a life of ease, no crying babies, long doctor appts…Why would you go on this journey. The price is way to high to pay for this calling. I called out to God again. “Lord…it is too lonely on this journey. No one understands where we are and the world we are in.” God gently reminded me of Christ’s loneliness on the cross. The pain of His separation from the Father at the time of his death on the cross. The mocking laughter of those who turned their back on their savior. However, he endured it. God reminded me this morning that we are all orphans. That we are all lost and lonely in a fallen world. However, I have been adopted into the family of God. I have been given a new hope in a life that was dark and fallen. What if God had said: This is too Uncomfortable, Hard, Painful, and Lonely. What if he had looked down and said I don’t have time for this lost soul. Where would I be…where would you be. No matter what the price…I can never come close to bearing what my savior did for me. I am thankful for a God that will reveal the truth of my journey and give me the opportunity to make a difference for the kingdom. I am thankful for a God that loves me even more than the love I feel for these beautiful little girls. Thank you Lord! “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 http://dadsjourneyoffaith.com/ Share this: Email Facebook Print Like this: Like Loading... adoptiondiscomfortdistressLifelonelinessorphanspainsacrifice Post navigation Previous A Year for HUMILITY Next Saved from Abortion Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. 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