WE are His Plan

Maybe you’ve noticed, and maybe you haven’t… that before this past week, it has been awhile since I shared one of these pleading advocacy posts. The truth is that I feel like a hypocrite. Trust me, I am speaking to my own heart and mind as much as I am yours. I shared with a dear friend my hesitancy to put my heart out there, knowing someone could throw it right back in my face. Please hear my voice as intended, a nudge out of our comfort zone and into the arms of Jesus, as we face our fears and loosen our control.

You see, so many of us are busy pursuing the American dream and using our own comforts to squelch the calling God gives to us all. We utter phrases to pacify: children are better off in their own culture, Jesus has a plan, God will take care of them, and someday (when we have reached our ideal status and attained the comforts we deem deserved) we will think about adoption. Here’s the problem Jesus does have a plan and God does have a way to take care of the orphan. He chooses to use us. WE are the solution. When countries shut down and children age out, we say “Don’t worry, God is in control”. Yes, that is very true, but what if we missed the opportunity? What if we were supposed to have made the difference in a child’s life? What if the plan was to use us and we didn’t heed the calling? What if we were too busy trying to fulfill our own desires?

I’ve uttered it too many times myself, “When the timing is right. When the right child comes along. When we have the money saved up to get started…” Now, I’ve missed the opportunity (for China at least). I’ve mourned every day for a year that we didn’t say yes sooner, that we didn’t commit just 2 weeks earlier, that our hesitation caused a child to wait and wait and wait. I still pray with my whole heart that China will open, but does that give me excuse? Does that mean that there aren’t other children waiting? While we sit and wait for the perfect timing and perfect circumstances, a child suffers. A child that is meant to be YOURS or MINE, that God is calling us to, waits. He goes to bed hungry. She sits alone in a crib all day. He is missing out on the medical care so desperately needed. She spends another night crying softly, realizing that no one is going to change her, bathe her, cuddle with her, or read stories to her. He stares out the bars on the windows and wonders what it would be like to run around outside and play.

WE are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. God DOES have a plan for the children that wait. HIS plan is US and WE are missing it! Please pray with me! Ask that God would speak LOUDLY to OUR hearts! Pray that WE would listen and have the courage to act! Not one of our adoptions was at the perfect time. Not once did we have the money needed at the beginning. Not one of our kiddos’ files spoke of needs we thought would be easy.

PLEASE LORD BREAK OUR HEARTS FOR WHAT BREAKS YOURS!!