I’m honored to share this guest post from my dear friend Jessie. She and I have known each other since college and grown closer over the years, especially since becoming moms on the exact same day! She is one of the kindest and most caring people I’ve ever met and the love of Jesus shines through her. With her permission, I wanted to share not only this post, but also a link to her blog about her journey with infertility. I hope you’ll feel as blessed by her words as I do.
I have recently been thinking about God’s Will for our lives versus the will we have for our own lives. It’s easy to say the words “Thy Will be done” but do we really mean it? Do we really want God’s Will to be done in our lives when we think we know best? Life is full of sadness and grief and loneliness and many other negative feelings. Do we really want our lives to rest in the hands of someone other than ourselves? Someone who might make us go through that stuff? I think the answer can be yes. If we can recognize that this someone isn’t just anyone, but God. The God who created the universe but also knows the number of hairs on each head. The God who invented laughter and love. The God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The God who built us and knows us better than we know ourselves. The God who can use what Satan intends for our destruction, for His glory and for our blessing. So do we dare lay our lives in God’s hands for His Will to be done?
Jessie: It was not my will to go through years of infertility and then the struggles of adoption. I could say it was God’s Will for me to go through those difficult times, but really He allowed me to go through those times so that His Will could be done. It was God’s Will for me to learn patience, to learn that I am not in control, and to be a parent of a child who needed a safe and loving home. It was God’s Will to change my heart about the way I see children and to change even my purpose in life. God chose me to be the mother to this amazing child who I get to call my own. God’s Will has not only given me a blessing beyond words and smiles and tears, but has also given me an avenue to talk about my faith in a new way with renewed passion.
Hannah: It was not necessarily her will to have a child with special needs and then face each day with new challenges, fears, and even frustrations. Hannah didn’t just have a child with special needs. She had Gage. Gage who is called Beloved by his Heavenly Father. Gage whose heart has been molded and whose lungs have been breathed into by God Himself. Gage whom God purposely placed in the arms of two amazing earthly parents. I cannot speak for Hannah here, but I know she is already learning about what God’s Will is for her life. I believe God’s Will is for Gage to grow up in a safe and loving home. I also believe that God’s Will is for Hannah to speak the truth about the challenges she faces with the perspective of the love of Christ. And to do so to an audience that only she can reach.
Gage and Owen: While I do not know what God has in store for them yet, I do fully believe that both Gage and Owen are going to make an impact on those around them. Those two adorable boys who were born on the same day. One who was known about for 9 months, and one just 10 days. One who was born and placed in the NICU, and one born and placed into another family’s arms. Both are unconditionally loved by the One who created them and by their parents. And both are uniquely different from others in their own way. I am so thankful they have one another.
So even when the hard stuff seems to be thrown at us over and over again, knowing that we are God’s children and in His care, let’s be bold and shout, “Thy Will be done!”
