“Fear is a wet blanket that smothers the fiery
passion God deposited in your heart when he formed you. Fear freezes us into
inaction. Frozen ideas, frozen souls, frozen bodies can't move, can't dream,
can't risk, can't love, and can't live. Fear chains us.”
“We can be satisfied. We are loved, wanted, seen,
delighted in, provided for, cherished, chosen, known, and planned on. We are
set apart, believed in, invited, valued, of immeasurable worth, and blessed.”
The quotes above are from the book “Captivating:
Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul” by Stasi Eldredge. The message of this book is this: Your heart
matters more than anything else in all creation. The desires you had as a little girl and the
longings you still feel are telling you of the life God created you to live. He offers to rescue your heart and release
you to live as a fully alive and feminine woman. A woman who is truly captivating.
This book is one of those books that you read, and
then re-read, and then read again and you highlight and underline and laugh and
cry and yell. It’s a book that speaks to
your heart. It’s a book that helps you
to realize that you are beautiful, strong, captivating, and worth more than you
can even fathom.
This is a message that every little girl, every
awkward teenager, every young woman, every grown wife, sister, aunt, cousin, daughter
should hear, see, feel, again and again.
As a child of God you are loved, wanted, seen,
delighted in, provided for, chosen, known, and planned on. We have value, worth, beauty, belonging.
Earthly situations can make this hard to grasp,
hard to believe, hard to reconcile.
Especially when a child comes from a hard place. A background built on trauma, loss,
suffering, negativity, or fear can make this seem even further away.
Fear can tamp down these feelings of worth, value,
beauty, and belonging. It
shuts.us.down. We all have those things
that make us fear, that hold us back.
As we’ve moved through this adoption journey the
second time, there is a sense of fear. “Can
we parent two children?” “Can we parent a child from a different country, a
different culture, a different language?” “Can we parent a child with special
needs?” “Are we strong enough to fight for, love on, and support a child that
comes from a hard place?”
These have been questions that have been
consistently in the background as we’ve gotten further along in this process.
In the midst of this fear, I know this—My God is a
faithful God. My God is a strong, powerful, all-encompassing Father. He sits
with us, walks with us, falls with us, runs with us, and holds us up.
I also know this—there is not one creature on this
Earth that is not worthy of His love. That is not valued by Him. That is not beautiful, strong, talented, and
important in His eyes. We are His. We are loved.
For updates on our journey, please visit our prayer
requests page.
