I’ve received several blessings over the last few weeks.
These reminders of God’s love and faithfulness have brought me tremendous joy.
I am thankful for friends who are so thoughtful!
I am thankful to my Father who knows that my heart delights in fun reminders of encouragement.
What reminders of God’s love have you recently received?
God’s love for us is big.
He has children, the chosen nation of Israel, but then He reached out to us Gentiles and offered to adopt anyone who would accept the way of salvation.
God the Father is the first adoptive parent. Adoption is a central theme of the Christian faith.
What makes all of this possible?
Love.
At least, that’s what we tell people.
God’s big love is for you.
His love transcends all other love.
Open your heart to His love.
I now want to shift our attention to the millions of children who need a home.
It’s cool to hear the adoption stories of fellow Christians, but they all have one element that bothers me:
“You know, it took us awhile to accept the idea of adoption because we just didn’t know if we could love a child that wasn’t ours.”
Wait a minute.
All Christians were once orphans, but we have to think about loving a child who’s not ours?
I have a problem with this statement.
How can I not love a child?
There’s no denying the beautiful connection between a parent and a child. To say, though, that my love can only be limited to those who came from me is selfish.
Ask yourself: What if God had excluded Gentiles?
(A Gentile, by the way, is anyone who is not a Jew.)
Thank goodness His love is bigger than ours or we’d all be in trouble.
Please hear me: I’m happy families are adopting.
That’s awesome!
Is there anything wrong with looking at a situation and saying, “Can we do this?”
No.
Seek wisdom in making the decision because it is a big decision.
Our ability to love, however, should never be a factor. We received our love–and the power to love–from God.
The monster I had to fight with every night was rejection.
I was the poster child for good kids everywhere, but something was still missing. The praise of my family and friends never satisfied me–though I wanted their praise to keep coming.
The two people I wanted acceptance from had ditched me a long time ago. That’s who I was trying please.
See, Mom and Dad, I’m worth something. I’m not a mistake. You were wrong about me.
Rejection would growl:
Stay on the ground, Audra. You can’t win this one. No one will ever accept you.
I believed him too.
For a long time, I even let this monster keep me from experiencing God’s love.
Oh, I knew about God’s love, but it couldn’t be for me. This was my logic: If your parents–who are supposed to model the love of God–reject you, that must mean that God can’t love you.
It wasn’t until my 20s that I truly surrendered all of my heart to God. He came to me in the most tender way, whispering in my ear that His acceptance and love didn’t have anything to do with where I started from.
Today, during a time of prayer, I was overwhelmed with gratitude while remembering where God found me–in a man-made pit of despair–and how He lovingly pulled me out of it.
And God wants to do the same for you, friend.
Don’t listen to the monsters from your past. They are lying to you! I promise.
The love of God is not far from you. It’s as close as your next breath.
What’s holding you back from truly receiving it?
Shoot me an email if you want to talk about this some more.
audragkennedy@gmail.com
audra gayle 