How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family
Day 11: Tip #10 – Trust Him to Guard What You Hold Dear
If you’re asking me to promise the fairy tale ending you’ve always envisioned can and will become your reality, I cannot. That variety of hopefulness is not reasonable. Taking risks, like adopting the fatherless, is not life wrapped up in a bow-topped box from Tiffany’s.
If you’re hoping for all the pieces to fit together perfectly, I’m sorry. We are dealing with broken individuals from often appalling situations living in a post Eden world. If this Polly Anna–all roads lead to sublimity—lifestyle is what you desire, you are setting your family on the fast course for disaster. This is not how family-building with the fatherless works. In fact, it’s not how family works at all.
It’s not how Christianity works, either. Honestly, the hope offered through Jesus Christ is more than everything working out for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. It’s much more glorious. Instead, this hope is based in a Person.
My best advice for anyone is to know Jesus—to really know him like Paul professes to know Him.
But I know whom I have believed and I am convinced the he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. 2 Timothy 1:12
When times were tough Paul did not trust in information about Jesus. When sufferings came and all human support wavered, Paul did not talk about everything working out. He boasted of the Lord standing with him.
But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued form the lion’s mouth. 2 Timothy 4:17
Paul knows the person of Jesus in whom he believed. He could completely trust Jesus with everything. Therefore he was confident in the Lord’s ability to guard what had been entrusted to him.
Things aren’t looking good for Paul as he professed his confidence. He is in prison, closing in on death. Was he delusional or is there something to be gleaned from his emphatic reliance and certainty? No, he was not delusional. He’s simply acquired a lifetime of experience of God showing Himself to be trustworthy and unequivocally able.
How does this translate to your family?
Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6
God is still able. This doesn’t ensure everything turns out the way you want. I honestly don’t know how it will work out. What I can promise is that your God is faithful. When all your hope is in Him, you can commit to Him your family, your life, your fears, your unknowns, your doubts—all that you hold dear. He is able to hold it securely—through eternity.
What do you need to commit to Him today?
Cheri
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