developing lifestyle worshipers

As we have gone through our adoption process, we have received many questions.  One question we have received from other people, but never asked directly to us, is “Why not adopt in America?  Why go to Ethiopia to adopt?”

It’s a great question that is asked from a variety of motives.  I can’t answer everything about the angles of this question, but I will attempt to shed some light.

1. Orphans deserve a home regardless of where they live. An orphan in America needs a home just as bad as orphans in Ethiopia.  And just because my citizenship belongs to a certain country doesn’t mean that I can only be concerned about people in that same country.
2. I am a citizen of the United States, but my first allegiance is to a country with no borders. It is the Kingdom of God.  And that nation doesn’t have boundary lines or racial distinctions.
3. Adoption anywhere is better than apathy everywhere. One time a person told evangelist D.L. Moody that she didn’t like his evangelism style.  He admitted he wasn’t fond of it, and asked her what her strategy was.  When she replied that she didn’t have one, he stated, “Well, I like mine better than yours.”  Most people who have questioned our international adoption have not been people involved with adoption.  They assume what the needs are, hear a couple of news stories, and make blanket statements concerning international adoption.  We have never had anyone who truly cares about orphans of the world disagree with what we were doing.
4. I would still love to adopt in the United States. We are not against it, we are for it, we just were called to Ethiopia this time around.  I am of the view that if a child gets a home, no matter who they are or where they are, that is a win.  There are no adoption hierarchies.
5. We must acknowledge great needs everywhere. There are needs for adoptive families in the United States.  One thing I realized in this process is that we must also consider that in some countries, some children will not get enough food and immunizations to live, and some children would never get the chance to hear the gospel.  We must take special consideration for those children with even more unfortunate circumstances.  Just because they live on the other side of the world does not mean they do not deserve compassion.

I love orphans finding their forever homes, regardless of how far those homes are, and I can’t wait to bring our lil’ guy home very soon.

This week’s book of the week is Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages. While I have used the premise of this book often in counseling, I had never actually read the book.  Since this week was a heart book read, I decided to go through this book finally.  The idea is that we all have  primary love language that we tend to speak and want others to use on us.  The problem is that rarely do spouses share that gift.  That means if someone is a big physical touch person, they try to hug and kiss their spouse’s hurts away when what that person really needs is words of affirmation.

This book is a great read.  While I register with all of these on some level, I realized today that I am a words of affirmation person and I am married to an acts of service wife.  We had a great conversation on these topics below.

For the 5 lines this week, I decided to pull a quote out to describe each of the love languages.  Do you see yours?

Top 5 Lines:

1. WORDS OF AFFIRMATION: “The word encourage means ‘to inspire courage.’  All of us have areas in which we feel insecure…The latent potential within your spouse in his or her areas of insecurity may await your encouraging words” (42).
2. QUALITY TIME: “Some husbands and wives think they are spending time together when, in reality, they are only living in close proximity…It means that we are doing something together and that we are giving our full attention to the other person” (60).
3. RECEIVING GIFTS: “Gifts come in all sizes, colors, and shapes.  Some are expensive, and others are free.  To the individual whose primary love language is receiving gifts, the cost of the gift will matter little, unless it is greatly out of line with what you can afford” (76).
4. ACTS OF SERVICE: “[Acts of service] require thought, planning, time, effort, and energy.  If done with a positive spirit, they are indeed expressions of love” (88).
5. PHYSICAL TOUCH: “Almost instinctively in a time of crisis, we hug one another…We cannot always change events, but we can survive if we feel loved” (109).

So what is your primary love language?

GUEST BLOGGER: Kyle Richter – This complete article can be found in the current edition of the Compass.

The dictionary defines sanctity as “the condition of being considered sacred or holy, and therefore entitled to respect and reverence.” The argument is often made that life demands respect and therefore abortion and euthanasia are wrong. According to the definition above the object must be sacred or valuable in order to be entitled to respect. However, the majority view in the world discredits the worth of human life.  The value and sanctity of life depends on how one believes life began. If life began as a result of a random event in the universe where and explosion occurred 14 billion years ago and humans are just highly developed apes, then that life does not demand such respect. According to this view, man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind. Killing a baby or a sick person is not considered wrong because the life itself does not have value. In this view, life is not only left without value, but is also void of any real meaning or purpose.

In contrast, the Bible gives man an explanation of life that offers value and purpose. We know from Scripture that “God created man is His own image, male and female”(Gen. 1:27). We were created by God to be spiritual and physical beings, which is unique from all the rest of creation. Furthermore, the Bible teaches that our creator God cares for us as His creation. The psalmist asks the question in Psalm 8:4-5, “What is man that You think about him, and the son of earth that You care about him?” Then, the writer declares that “God crowned man with glory and honor.” God cares for us as His children, in fact, God uses the title Father to describe Himself more than any other in Scripture.

We see clearly from the Bible that God is the giver of life and values life. Now, the next question to ponder is when does that human life begin? Psalm 139:13 teaches that each unborn child is uniquely and carefully formed by God. David writes, “For you formed my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” As amazing as that is to know, it is enhanced by the truth that before God formed us in the womb, He knew us and ordained a unique purpose for our life. David continues praising God by writing, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” God has not only created us with value, but also He has created each of us with great purpose. Knowing these truths from Scripture or response must be to treat human life with the highest respect, and this must include life in the womb.

The truths of Scripture do not contradict the teachings of science. In fact, science encourages the idea that life begins at conception. When sperm meets the egg, the gender of a child is determined and genetic traits are determined. As early as 18 days after conception the heart of a baby begins to beat. By the time the pregnancy has reached 8 weeks, there are recognizable brain waves, and the child has individual fingerprints.  At week 10 the baby has developed a face that is recognizable, and at 23 weeks the baby has the potential to survive outside of the womb. Even with advances in medical knowledge there are 126,000 abortions each day resulting in over 46 million babies’s lives being taken each year. In fact, the lifetime average worldwide is one abortion per woman.

Life is a gift from God, and He has commanded us to do all we can to honor, protect and preserve life. We fall short of fulfilling this when we have abortions, but we also dishonor life when we fail to take care of the bodies God has given us. Regardless of how we have dishonored or disrespected life in the past, God is more concerned with how we respect and value life from this day forward. God has given each of us the precious and valuable gift of life. What are you going to do with this gift?