Update: Letter Writing Project

By the end of tomorrow I will have completed 4 full months of this letter writing project. It has become a discipline: to be diligent to write one letter to a different person every single day (which did not sound like much of a time commitment before I started). I hesitate in even using the word “discipline” because it makes it sound like drudgery. This letter writing project is anything but that.

 As I sit down to write each day and truly spend time considering the exact thoughts I would like to share with the person on the receiving end, I find that it is not a quick task. My contemplation whisks me away to so many thoughts and almost every time, tears (of joy), about who this person is, all of the wonderful things God has made in them and why I am so blessed to have them in my life. I don’t want to lightly scribble words and send off a mass mailer each day; I want each card to be as unique as the recipient. The word HEARTEN is a verb, an action word meaning to GIVE courage or good cheer; to encourage. I want to give of myself and send a small fragment of my heart with each one of these letters to build up and encourage this beloved person.

So, do they know my revealed heart as they open the letters? I don’t always know. Some have acknowledged in passing to me, “Oh, I got your letter.” Some say a quick thanks or even mention who they may send a letter to using the stamp I included; that is exciting to hear. But most do not respond at all. That’s OK. God knows the plans He has for this project and I rest in that, not the feedback I receive or don’t receive.

But sometimes… every now and then… my heart bursts at the response such as the one that was given to me today: “Thanks again for your encouragement card. My heart IS heartened!”  I am overwhelmed with joy!

Prayer: Lord, help me find the time each day to invest in these letters. Then, as I mail them off may they delight the souls of those who receive them. May they be encouraged and their joy renewed, even if for only a moment. Life is not easy but may we continue to find ways to share with each other the love You have given to us.

Telling the truth

Truthfully, I don't always want to tell the truth. I don't always want to have to tell what is really going on in my life, in my family. I want to be able to share lines hot off the presses from Facebook that make people believe I have it all together, my life, children and house are all in order and that I am filled with joy all the time.

But that isn't the truth. 

We were asked to get together with “a friend of a friend” that is starting the adoption process from Ethiopia. I wanted to tell them the short version, including only the parts when everything worked out, when we witnessed miracles and we (& people all around us) were being encouraged because of all that God was doing to bring our 2 children home. But that isn't where the story ends. It isn't the whole truth. 

Here is what I emailed to her after we had spent the evening together, discussing the real version of adoption in our family:

Thank you so much for taking the time to hear our story the other night. I hope that we didn't scare you. I wish I could just share the beginning part of the story before we brought them home when all of the amazing "miracles" were happening. We literally prayed every single night for a year and half as a family. During that time God grew in our hearts a united ownership of the "call" to adopt. Our prayer was based on a quote we have pinned to our refrigerator by A.W. Tozer, "God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan to do the things we can only do ourselves."

Adoption was (and remains to be) beyond our own abilities and God truly paved a way when there was no way. It was amazing and we could not keep tract of all of the things that happened to confirm God's leading in the adoption process.

Once we brought them home, our version of the prayer took on a whole new face. We weren't just praying that prayer to happen, we were living it out. Dealing with attachment issues on a daily basis with our daughter has obviously not been easy by any stretch. But this is the point in our faith journey when we recognize a daily necessity to confess our absolute need for God and to rely on His strength to tarry on. It is not optional. Following Christ is not always pretty and magical, filled with beautifully answered prayers. Most of the days look messy, muddy and are exhausting. But as we arise each morning to start a new day we can say without a shadow of a doubt God alone can do the impossible in any situation and I pray today is the day He does it!

The truth may not always be easy to share or what I really want people to know. But the truth, the real nitty-gritty parts of my life & my being that reveals the core of who I am in any circumstance, is the part of me that crosses over from making my life about me to making my life about God and what He can do. When I share the TRUTH I am making a decision to point others not to me but to the One at work in me, the One I have surrendered my whole life to: God my Savior.

My Prayer: May my heart be grateful for the opportunities in our lives to see You, Lord, do the impossible. I confess my need for You and lean in to You when I am weak (which is all the time). I ask that Your power would be made perfect in my weakness, just as You promised. And give me the courage to continue to be honest and “real” with those around me in hopes that it will bring glory to You.