With Thankfulness: Give Thanks

Many families burdened by the command of Jesus to care for orphans often will ask the Lord, “What is your will for us?” Should we sponsor an orphan? Should we go to Haiti and volunteer in an orphanage over spring break? Should we foster here in the states? Should we adopt from overseas?

For those who feel it’s God’s will for them to adopt, preparations soon begin.

Maybe you start by asking the Lord what country you should adopt from or what type of child would suit your family–infant/teenager, boy/girl, healthy/special needs. Then, you begin to ask questions to those who have walked this path before you. You find blogs that share about other families’ experiences, read books written by “adoption experts,”  and search the internet for scholarly articles on adoption and adopted children.

None of these things are wrong in and of themselves (I have one of these blogs myself!). But, I would like to share that I believe the Word of God is 100% sufficient–Jesus is the Expert of all experts and the Scholar of all scholars. When reading adoption blogs takes over your time with the Lord, and seeking counsel from worldly experts steals away the truth from your heart, then you will begin to lose sight of God’s will, and when the “going gets tough,” you will sink.

Gods will must be an anchor to your soul.

Understanding first and foremost that His will is always rooted in love. {Ephesians 3:16-20}

And, if we know that we know this love, we are able to

Give thanks in all circumstances knowing that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. {1 Thessalonians 5:18}

When your bank account is in the red, when you can’t think about singing another document, when you stay up all hours of the night waiting for that email in your inbox…

It’s God’s will that you give thanks.

When your child finally arrives home and he/she screams at the mere sight of you, when she pushes your love away, when outbursts of anger result in a hole in the wall.

It’s God’s will that you give thanks.

When the thought of waking up and “doing it all over again” pulls you into a depression, when the joy of the Lord seems like a thing of the past, when you begin to questions like “Was this really God’s will?”

It’s God’s will that you give thanks.

When you learn that maybe the will of God for you to adopt was more about the transforming of your heart, when you delight in battling for their little souls, when the word of God becomes common language in your home.

You have learned what it means to truly,

Give thanks in all circumstances knowing that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. {1 Thessalonians 5:18}

When we brought our first adopted child home, she was 12 months old. At that time, we also had a 3-year-old and a 13-month-old. We knew it was God’s will for us to adopt, and we trusted in His word and His Spirit to fill us with all wisdom and knowledge to be able to parent this little girl. Little did we know just how dependent we would become on these two things.

Today, 10 adopted children later, we continue to hold strong to the fact that we knew it was God’s will for us to become these children’s parents. Despite the hardships we endured, and continue to endure, it truly is God’s love that we must root ourselves in. Then and only then can we give thanks in all circumstances.

________________________________________

Zane and Summer McCourtney met and married in 2001. They have been ministering in Uganda since 2004, first at a Bible college and church planting and now working with the unreached people in Northern Uganda, a region of the country devastated by 25 years of rebel war. They have been allowing the Lord to place the lonely into their own family since 2006 after the birth of their second child. To date, the Lord has placed 10 children into their home (you can read their stories on their ministry blog under No Longer Orphans). Each of our children has a story–a story of hope and redemption. We believe that Jesus Christ and His word alone are able to bring healing and restoration to the hearts and minds of our children. We have been blessed to see this firsthand–get a glimpse of it on Summer’s personal blog.