What She Said

The ice-cream friend sent this blog to the bath salt friend who sent it on to me.


I loved her point of "yes, we prayed for this. No, we haven't changed our minds. Yes, this is the hardest thing we've ever done, and yes, we need help." Following God doesn't guarantee a life of ease.

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/09/06/after-the-airport

Weep with those who Weep

"When Jesus saw her [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit ...





Rejoice with those who rejoice;


Weep with those who weep.


Romans 12:15b

Two tiny containers of Starbucks Java Chip ice-cream. Tiny because my friend knew that I am trying to be aware of portion control. Starbucks Java Chip because she knows that it's my very favorite.


A bucket of bath salts (sprinkled with more chocolates) from another friend who knew to come by even when I told her not to bother. Long baths are among my most favorite quiet moments.


Thank you, God, for the women friends in my life who know how to weep with those who weep. When others love deeply, but are powerless to show it in a way that I can understand, these friends show up at my door, uninvited, unannounced, and stay just long enough to let me know that they care.


Thank you for reaching out to me, Lord Jesus, through believing, loving, weeping friends.


Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2


Let us not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
1 John 3:18

Hope Deferred

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a 


dream fulfilled is a tree of life.


Proverbs 13:12

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Rembrandt

1633

Lord Jesus,
Please help me to walk through HOPE DEFERRED with you, hand in hand. My heart is broken, but you promise that you are near to the broken-hearted.


My heart wants to close itself off to the possibility of ever having my dream fulfilled. It wants to curl up in a ball on the floor, naked and cold. It wants to shrink back.


Help me to have HOPE. Hope not in receiving the fulfillment of my dream, but HOPE IN YOU.


You confront me again and again. Psalm 25. My HOPE is to be in YOU ALONE. Not in any children. Not the love of a husband or the satisfaction of being trusted with a task that seems significant and personally fulfilling. You will not allow any competitors in my small heart.


I sit, as Job did, and wait in the ashes. Not waiting for you to change things, but waiting on you. I am your servant. You call the shots. I am to wait. Yet, I am not just your servant. I am your adopted daughter. I owe my very life to you, and yield it to your purposes in gratitude.


Jen Hatmaker's adoption blog said that they very fact that beauty comes from ashes implies that there will be some ashes. Help me sit and wait quietly before you. Utterly humbled by  my powerlessness and inability to make any difference. Be still my soul, there may yet be hope. God's hard words are never his last words.


Help me to trust your leadership through my circumstances. ALL THE WAYS OF THE LORD ARE LOVING AND FAITHFUL. You are good, whatever comes. There was a plan in heaven that was put in place long before I ever was aware of my dream for adoption. Heaven is undisturbed, even as I weep and wail. May the calm that reigns in heaven reign in my heart. May I lift my eyes to you again and again, focusing not on the wild wind and waves that threaten to sink my soul, but on you. May I hear your voice above the howl of the wind and come to you on the water of faith.


Quietly,
Taryn