The Honeypot

Posted by Traci at 9:21 AM

As I said in the last post, I’ve been reading through Psalms.  For the most part I’ve been pretty bored.  No cool stories or characters I can empathize with.  But yesterday, after spending the last few days reading no fewer than 20 adoption blogs, all super scary, I really needed something.  So I kept reading and hit, as Chip said, “the honeypot”.  These are consecutive chapters, and every one spoke to my exact need in such incredible ways.  God is too cool.  Here’s what I read:

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;

He shall preserve your soul.

The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in

From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Psalms 121:7-8 (NKJV)

The super liberating thing that God told me in this passage is that my job is not to fix my kids.  Any of them.  My job is to obey His command and take the ones under my wing He has given us, by birth or adoption.  That is such a ridiculous weight off my shoulders.  All of want for them, everything I want for them, is to love God and enjoy Him.  But if, heartbreakingly, they don’t then I can’t feel responsible for that.  And more importantly I can’t toil endlessly for that.  I can only be obedient and try to live a life energized and driven by the Holy Spirit.  And pray it’s infectious.

Like servants, alert to their master's commands,

like a maiden attending her lady,

We're watching and waiting, holding our breath,

awaiting your word of mercy.

Psalms 123:1-2 (The Message)

If God wants me to wait on His command, on His direction, then that must mean He’s giving directions.  For life, for parenting, for work, for play, for everything.  Only a terrible parent would tell their kid to wait on their answer and then never answer.  And God is def not terrible.  It’s reassuring to know that He will give me guidance, I just need to be listening.

Those who trust in the Lord

Are like Mount Zion,

Which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

So the Lord surrounds His people

From this time forth and forever.

Psalms 125:1-2

No matter what joys or struggles await us in the coming years, we’ll never be on our own.  In addition to the wonderful family and friends we have, God himself will literally surround us.  Pretty cool.

So those who planted their crops in despair

Will shout hurrahs at the harvest,

So those who went off with heavy hearts

Will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.

Psalms 126:5-6

The day before I read this I had been thinking a lot about time.  About how most people I’ve met in the adoption world are at the toddler stage.  And I wondered what the next few years would bring – preteen, teen, young adult, etc.   About how all these people are laboring, begging the Lord for change but not seeing much.  Then I read this and realized that with all my children, with everything really,  the fruit of a life striving after God (if not always making it) comes slowly.  But it does come.  There will be laughing and blessing and hurrahs or heck yeahs.

Unless the Lord builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless the Lord guards the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain.

Psalms 127:1

Okay this one is just self explanatory.  If every wall in my house is covered in Joshua 24:15 vinyl stickers but I am a practical atheist, then I’m building my home in vain.   So that means I have to move from talking about to God to talking to God.  And listening.  Everyday.  Otherwise I’m just “spit-ting in the wind” (Dr. Karen Purvis, Empowered to Connect quote).

When you eat the labor of your hands,

You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

In the very heart of your house,

Your children like olive plants

All around your table.

Psalms 128:2-3

This is the future God wants for me  - blessings in my whole family.