Everything in your life has been leading you to this moment.
They must have said this two or three times in church tonight and all I could think about was finally finishing this crazy certification journey to become a foster parent. Hopefully by the end of next Friday evening, Seth and I will have everything completed that is required of us and will have a new baby to love on very soon. The path our lives have unexpectedly taken this past year is so surreal to me that it can only be God and the message at church tonight confirmed it.
This exact time one year ago, Seth and I were searching for land to build our dream house on out near Guthrie. We told ourselves that this was from God, even though we didn't seek His opinion on it at all. Our plan was to become self-sufficient so that we wouldn't have to rely on anyone besides ourselves. During the message at church tonight, Craig stated that "Self-reliance + self-absorption = self-destruction." That alone was confirmation for me that had we continued on with our original plan minus God, things wouldn't have ended well. Although we expected to be somewhere totally different right now, we are more than content with where we're at and more excited about the future than I ever could have imagined being this time last year.
It has been an exciting few months with beginning the fostering process, going through training, Seth losing his job, being denied unemployment, and winning the appeal hearing 8 weeks later... God has kept us on our toes. And just for a second tonight, I breathed a sigh of relief thinking, "We are almost certified, now it's time to move on to the next step." Then I remembered what that next step is going to be... caring for and loving another child with the high probability of saying goodbye to that child. The roller coaster of emotions I've been on this last couple of months is nothing but a sliver of things to come. I can't even begin to imagine how our life will change. The only thing I am confident of, is that God has called us to do this and there is no way I'm saying, "no." We're going to need help and lots of prayers, friends. Please be generous with both.
July 9 - My Utmost for His Highest
"The people said to Joshua, ’No, but we will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:21). This is not an impulsive action, but a deliberate commitment. We tend to say, “But God could never have called me to this. I’m too unworthy. It can’t mean me.” It does mean you, and the more weak and feeble you are, the better. The person who is still relying and trusting in anything within himself is the last person to even come close to saying, “I will serve the Lord.”
This exact time one year ago, Seth and I were searching for land to build our dream house on out near Guthrie. We told ourselves that this was from God, even though we didn't seek His opinion on it at all. Our plan was to become self-sufficient so that we wouldn't have to rely on anyone besides ourselves. During the message at church tonight, Craig stated that "Self-reliance + self-absorption = self-destruction." That alone was confirmation for me that had we continued on with our original plan minus God, things wouldn't have ended well. Although we expected to be somewhere totally different right now, we are more than content with where we're at and more excited about the future than I ever could have imagined being this time last year.
It has been an exciting few months with beginning the fostering process, going through training, Seth losing his job, being denied unemployment, and winning the appeal hearing 8 weeks later... God has kept us on our toes. And just for a second tonight, I breathed a sigh of relief thinking, "We are almost certified, now it's time to move on to the next step." Then I remembered what that next step is going to be... caring for and loving another child with the high probability of saying goodbye to that child. The roller coaster of emotions I've been on this last couple of months is nothing but a sliver of things to come. I can't even begin to imagine how our life will change. The only thing I am confident of, is that God has called us to do this and there is no way I'm saying, "no." We're going to need help and lots of prayers, friends. Please be generous with both.
July 9 - My Utmost for His Highest
"The people said to Joshua, ’No, but we will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:21). This is not an impulsive action, but a deliberate commitment. We tend to say, “But God could never have called me to this. I’m too unworthy. It can’t mean me.” It does mean you, and the more weak and feeble you are, the better. The person who is still relying and trusting in anything within himself is the last person to even come close to saying, “I will serve the Lord.”
