We are Free!

Yes... I am still here...

It used to be so easy to write the things on my heart and then just shoot them out in an email to friends!  It seems that since I have officially started to blog things are different.  Honestly, I have started this next blog post 3 different times.  And something just would prevent me from finishing it. It may have been the time of day~actually night... and I was just too tired to think clearly.  It could have been that I just couldn't put into words how my heart was feeling or aching.  I have come to see this blog as a "responsibility" not just as a place to "share my heart and life and what God is teaching me"!  I know for the reader out there who is a seasoned blogger it may seem like a "no brainer" but I am guessing that at one time even the most eloquent, disciplined and committed blogger has come to that place of realization.

The idea of me blogging has been on my heart for actually a few years.  It all started when we were in the process of adopting our little boy from Ethiopia.  He has an amazing story and God had allot that He wanted me to share with people.  From where I sit, looking  back I think the whole journey (at least on my end) was to share with all of you, how much God loved me/us through the journey. How much He wanted me to draw closer to Him, not only in the excitement of the journey, but more in the times of waiting, despair, sorrow, confusion, discontent, frustration and feelings of giving up. It was in those times that when I had to explain to everyone how much my heart was breaking I was able to bring Him the glory.  It was in those times that He held me and spoke to me...and reminded me of what I know to  be true.  It was in those times that I grew so much more in love with the Father and Son...and came to a much deeper dependence on Him rather than on my own capabilities.

He is why I am now blogging.

So with that I am seeing a new sense of "purpose".  The reasons why people blog are all different. But for me, the main reason is to share Him with others and bring Him the glory for all that He is doing in so many hearts and places around the world.  I also want to bring awareness to the cause for the orphan!  An awareness that there are some 150 million orphans in the world today!  There are statistics that will blow your mind... (a later post) Things that once you read, hear and see will change you forever...

I also hope that in my sharing others will come to know that they are not alone.  God has a plan for all of us...for each of us.  Maybe in some way, the things that our family goes through can help others along the way.  I believe we are meant to share in each others lives..... in many different ways.  God made us to love and care for one another.  We have seen that love and caring from so many people that we have not even met physically!  My prayer is that we can return blessing on someone else!

So.... I am a bit distracted...I will get back on track.  This morning there are a few things that are on my mind and in my heart. Things that I would love to share..but I don't have time to write a 4 page post. For now...
 
I have been reading in Romans chapter 8. Life in the Spirit. The one thing that I have been "mulling" over the past week is Gods grace. God's plan for me to live in the Spirit.  You see for me, most of my entire life I have lived trying to "perform" well.  Trying to gain the high "attagirls" and words of praise.  My young adult life was spent trying to "make up for" things that I had done in my past. I eventually realized that no matter how hard I tried, once I reached the bar, it would always move up!  Can anyone relate?....  Always always trying to keep everything in order... keep things looking good...keep the kids in order...keep the people happy!  As if!  I gave myself some slack. I let myself off the hook... I knew that my imperfections were the reason I need Christ in the first place.  But what I didn't know in the beginning was that no matter how hard I tried in ALL areas of my life, I couldn't satisfy the "law".  That in fact, the law in itself is weak.  The weakness of the laws lies in the fact that we cannot keep it!  So I have learned that and studied what God says about our "perfect performance" and how we cannot BE perfect but that He SEES us perfect through the work of Jesus on the cross. Jesus is the righteousness that lives in us and frees us from living by the law and instead we live by the spirit!

Romans 4:13
It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith!

There is so much more....read the entire chapter of Romans 4 here!
So while I am reminded that by faith, through His grace I am free from that burden... there are days/times when it is so easy to slip back into that old way of thinking! That the enemy will remind me of how much I don't measure up and how I have failed or will never be what I desire....I know the truth!  I am not bound by my failings and mistakes and sins....  Romans 3:23-24  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus!
Oh please Father..would you burn that into my mind and heart!  'Cause when I rest there...I am free!  The perspective I have changes everything!  Even in His goodness and love He knows my weaknesses..and He gently brings this wandering heart and mind back to the place where it will find peace and rest and joy and hope and love and all things HIM.

I hope that today you can live in the freedom of the Spirit in all things.... in the roles you have in your life...and mostly..in your relationship with the one who loves you unconditionally!  God!

Resting,
In His Embrace
laurie