Surrender

Surrender means to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand.

This weeks has been hard. The reality of the fact that we will soon (Lord willing) be parents of children across an ocean for an indefinite amount of time is weighing heavily on our hearts. Once we get through this "court" phase, the children will be legally ours. But, we won’t yet be able to go to them and bring them home. We have to wait months (and months…) until they have all the proper immigration clearances before our agency will allow us to travel. We’ve daydreamed about and pressed our agency to allow us to go over early, but it’s not going to happen. Who knows why these rules exist? It seems really silly to us, but no one is asking us…

So, we will be parents. The children will have parents. And yet, an ocean will separate us. They will spend their days and nights in an orphanage in an orphanage. That’s the reality.

This morning the Lord gave me comfort. He showed me that my desire to get them home is not pure love (because my love is always tainted with sin). The Lord showed me that I, am once again, desiring to wrestle control from Him. He asked me, "Am I not their Father? Is my care not good enough for them? Haven’t I been caring for them since birth? Did I not create them? Are you a better parent than I AM?" (Seriously, I heard "I AM") So, I am humbled, and I surrender – waiving the white flag high.

Exodus 20:1-6 (ESV)

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.