SHATTERED OR RESTORED? YOU TELL ME!

While praying this morning God reminded me of some of my past as a little girl growing up without a father. To my biological father I feel I was just excess baggage waiting to be discarded. Kind of like pieces of broken glass. For a long time I tried to either put these back together myself or fill the void with so many other things not worthy or an adequate fit for this huge crater of a hole left in the very depth of my soul. IT HURT and IT WAS A GNAWING REMINDER of my brokenness and my inadequacy. But you see the Lord was always there. He tells us that He will take ALL of this brokenness and use it for His purpose, in His time, and make something Beautiful out of ALL my/our brokenness.
You see, this lack of a loving earthly father left me shattered to my very core, but it also caused me to long for the love of a father. In this search, I FOUND JESUS. This post is not long enough for me to describe how My Heavenly Father has bound my wounds and filled that huge crater of emptiness inside of me. Now, this did not happen over night. He could have chosen to do this but instead he has let me learn from what He is doing and given me all the time I needed to learn to trust Him; place my total faith in Him; be disciplined by Him; nurtured by Him; lean into Him and at certain time to see a little glimpse of what He is doing. What an amazing Father!
You see if I had been rushed I would have missed out on so much. God's timing is perfect. We don't have to rush, worry, help Him out (not that I ever tried this); we simply need each day to say....Father? Are you there? Will you help me this day. This moment? And the answer is always the same. I am here, give me all your worries, your hurt/brokenness and I will love you no matter what. I won't leave you; forget about you; turn my back on you.......no Jesus will walk with us Always. Yes we may get disciplined.......but He will never leave us. Thank you Jesus for letting me learn to trust you in this.
Along the way God has always given me a heart for the broken hearted; the discarded; the least of these. This day is no different! You see God uses all my and my families brokenness to give us an opportunity to show others that Our God is still the God of miracles. This day and for several months we have been seeking His will alone in a second international adoption.
We are called to follow Christ example. Right? He adopted each of us as His dearly loved children. Right? Then what does this mean for each of us? It may not mean that you personally called to adopt literally, but does mean that you are to come alongside ____ in the way that He calls you to. Pray God's will be done. He will not leave you hanging. He will answer in His time. We must only seek and obey. Much love, Dawn