Friday, February 19, 2010

Adoption Means Giving of Yourself

Adoption means giving of yourself all the time. All the time is just hard to do. I know that this is what we are called to do. Jesus gave his life and he gave his life ALL the time while here on earth. I think this is what I am striving to do, obeying Christ.

With children who come home at an older age, it is a struggle.
I long to truly love them as Christ loves me. This is something for continual prayer. It is a slow process.

Not because God is not faithful, but because I am not faithful. I try to be faithful in spiritual disciplines, but I give place to the enemy all too often. The times where I have really sought the Lord have been sweet times in my relationship with them.

I know what Jesus meant when he said, "without me, you can do nothing." Also, that if we remain in him we will bear much fruit."

One thing that has really helped me in the day to day issues,is to remember why I wanted to adopt older children. That I wanted to give my life away for the sake of others as Christ did.

The problem is that my heart is so prone to wander and I can easily let my guard down. This is the Christian struggle! The thing that we want to do, we don't, and the thing that we hate, that we do. If Paul struggled with this, we will as well. Who will deliver us from this body of death??? Paul asked, and his answer was Christ!
I was hoping that just sharing our struggles might help others, in the adoption world and in just life.

God is so very very good! Isn't that the whole story of the Bible from beginning to end.

Blessings, Pam

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for being so open. Your spiritual reflections are really helpful and encouraging to me.

Della said...

Thank you for this! I needed these words for entirely different reasons. Two adult sisters in the same house... one having the house and family, the other being in need... extremely difficult to love from either side, it seems. I should save your post and read it frequently to try to remember to give myself away. God bless and keep you, lift you up and strengthen you, may He give you all you need so it flows over to those you love/desire to love!

Pamela Dawn said...

Someone wrote "how would I feel if one of the kids were to see this blog". First, none of the kids read the blog- And the 2nd set of kids are not reading English very well at all yet. But, the question is a good one- how would I feel? I am trying to be open and honest in the blogs on our lives- but, I do not want to hurt any child in the process- that defeats the purpose of the blog- So, I have revised this blog posting. Blog readers can take or leave what I write- it is my blog- but, I never want to hurt one of my children. Blessings, Pamela