Chuggington

Kelley had a continuing education class in Chicago last week for 3 days, so Kate and I tagged along and we made the last part of the week a vacation.  Kate flew on an airplane and rode on a train for the very first time.  Kelley loaded several episodes of the two shows Kate loves, "Little Einsteins" and "Chuggington," on her iPad.  Both of these shows are on Disney Jr.

We don't let Kate watch much TV, but we thought we better have a way to keep her occupied waiting for our flights and on our flights.  It worked, but I was reminded of why we don't let Kate watch much TV: it's ADDICTIVE for her.  We'd rather her play (inside or outside) and look at books, anything other than becoming another TV/Computer/Gadget zombie child.

Kate developed a favorite saying on our trip.  I've been recording her first word each day in my journal, just for fun.  One morning when I went into her room (we had a suite the last part of the week) to get her out of the crib, her first word was "light" because I'd turned on a lamp to get her up, and with her next breath she said, "More Chuggy!"  Not "Daddy," "Mommy," "Breakfast," or any of her usual first words of the day, but "More Chuggy!"  She had watched those 3 20-minute episodes so often that it was all she began to think about.  At various times throughout the day, she'd say it to us.  She wanted to watch Chuggington, ALL THE TIME.

I don't think using the TV (or newer technology) to babysit children is a good idea.  As I've worked with teenagers since the late 1990's, I've noticed a drastic change in how they act and interact.  It's disturbing.  I regularly witness groups of teenage boys and girls in a room together, DURING UNSTRUCTURED TIME (no lesson, no one addressing the group), and the only thing you can hear is thumbs moving on keyboards or scrolling the glass faces of their phones.  Sometimes, they're texting each other - in the same room - instead of talking.  I've also experienced this on trips, where there's very little sound inside the van I'm driving, because everyone is playing with their phones.  When this trend first started, I banned the use of phones, iPods, etc. on our trips so that they would ENGAGE one another.  It didn't work: they mostly just rode in silence unless I tried to make them talk via playing games, etc.

Years ago, some of the greatest ministry the week of a youth retreat happened ON THE RIDE TO/FROM OUR DESTINATION.  Now on these trips, there's mostly silence or music from the radio that few people hear because they're all listening to their own.  We witnessed this same thing on the subway last week - most people were PURPOSEFULLY isolated, even though they were sitting or standing inches away from others.

I'm an introvert, but I like to talk to people.  The few times I've flown alone, I've usually sat beside someone who wanted to talk and I generally enjoyed the conversation.  But nowadays, kids don't care to talk to even the people they KNOW, let alone the people they don't know.  I wonder how some of them will find a relationship meaningful enough for marriage.  I wonder how the Christians in these younger generations will ever be able to share the Gospel, which by nature is difficult, controversial, and polarizing, when they don't even have the desire to have conversation with others.

As funny as it sounds coming from a 22-month old, I hate the reality of the words, "More Chuggy!"

Do You Trust God to Provide For You?

I heard about a couple of disgusting conversations involving God-called pastors yesterday.  One of these conversations is more disgusting because it involved a guy who claims to be a Christian and is also a member at the church where the pastor he talked to serves.

But both conversations involved the same theme - money and a lack of trust in God.

God called this first friend of mine to Christian ministry years ago.  My friend spent years preparing himself in school and by serving in local churches.  A church member recognized his God-given abilities to teach, relate, show kindness, etc., and thought he would work great at HIS chosen career.  I'll leave out the details to keep these stories anonymous  So the church member approached my friend and basically offered him a job.  My friend said, "I have a job."  The guy said, "Yea, but you're not going to do this for the rest of your life."  My friend replied, "Yes I am.  This is what God called me to do.  And I enjoy it."  The guy said, "You're never going to be able to support your family doing this," and continued to tell him why he should make a career change.

God also called my second friend to ministry years ago.  This friend is still in the process of preparing himself in school.  He has also served in various ways in local churches throughout his adult life.  Just like with my first friend, it's obvious to anyone who is looking that God has definitely called him and gifted him with a passion to preach the Gospel and wisdom as he goes about it.  He was approached by someone he knew from a secular job, and the same conversation as the first one I mention took place.

I can't say that I'm shocked by the guy responsible for the second conversation because I don't know anything about him.  But I am shocked and saddened by the first guy.  He claims to be a Christian but he doesn't understand what it means to put his trust in God.  He doesn't know what it means to sacrifice earthly things for God's Kingdom.  And to make it worse, he tried to convince one of his own pastors to walk away from his calling based on HIS OWN sinful lust for money and doubt about God's ability to take care of him.

In the world's eyes, neither of my two friends make a lot of money.  As pastors, they'll probably never be able to afford homes three-times the size they need, luxury cars, expensive vacations, or to always have the latest whatever.  Both of them have families to take care of, and I'm sure they've wondered how they're going to give their children some of the things they hope to give them.  They can be sure of God's ability to take care of them and their families, NO MATTER WHAT, by looking at others who have trusted God to do the same.

Here's what I know from personal experience: If you follow God where He leads, with pure motives, and you're not scared to put in time and give great effort (in other words, IF YOU'RE NOT LAZY), God will always take care of you.  That doesn't mean God will give you everything you want.  It does mean He will take care of you.

I've never made much money.  Since I've been married, my wife has made more than me every year, and that includes the past year when she went to a reduced schedule.  But God has always taken care of me - in multiple ways.  At my first full-time church staff position, my salary wasn't enough to pay my bills.  I knew when I took the job that if I had to buy a car, I'd be eating lots of cereal for supper.  But I had a pastor who's still in my life who promised me that I wouldn't be in need.  He was right, and he and his wife personally helped me when I had emergencies.  Just a few months after I started there, the AC compressor on the 4-year old car I'd recently bought went out.  The AC compressor was unique - to the tune of $900 plus installation.  I didn't have that money.  Guess who paid it, and he's never asked for it back.  I didn't take advantage of their generosity, but they've always let me know that if I have a need, they'll help me.

Those church members gave me large cash gifts (anonymously or in cards and presents) at least THREE TIMES PER YEAR - Christmas, on the anniversary of the day I started serving there, and on my birthday.  That amounted to an extra $1,000-$2,000 per year that I didn't even expect.  My church also let me do something I both LOVED and benefited from: I got to substitute teach in the local middle school and high school, AS OFTEN AS I WANTED TO.  A church member worked in the middle school office and she made sure I got called often.  Due to the nature of substitute teaching, I could take my own work with me and do it throughout the day.  I averaged 1 day per week for the 4+years I served that church, and sometimes I subbed several days per week.  Every month when my check came from the school district office, I'd say a prayer of thanks to God for giving me extra income from doing something I actually enjoyed.  I was able to build so many relationships with kids I never would've met otherwise, and some of them started coming to our church just because of me subbing.

My favorite story about trusting God to take care of ME is with my education.  I've earned three degrees, and by the time I finished the last one, I didn't owe a cent on any of them.  I was 37 years old with a doctorate and zero student loans.  I was able to pay for my education as I went.  Just so happened that the first church I served volunteered to pay for my masters classes.  I took two classes per semester and had to be in class ALL DAY EVERY MONDAY.  That meant, I'd never be at work on Mondays.  My church was happy to give me the time "off."  (Keep in mind, I was also subbing an average of 1 day per week.)

When I moved away from that church and took out a loan to finish my last masters year, I had every cent of the loan amount before any interest ever accrued.  I saved every dollar I could and JUST HAD ENOUGH.  Somehow during that time, I don't remember a single car repair or any other surprise expense.

I spent 6 years earning a doctorate and I paid for it as I went.  Every cent.  College - it took me 9 years after college to pay off my low-interest student loan.  It really wasn't that big a deal or payment because God provided me with lots of scholarships, even though I didn't have a super-high GPA in high school or college.

See, God takes care of us when we trust Him.  That doesn't mean we can spend our money foolishly, but it also doesn't mean we'll never HAVE anything.  I play golf every week and golf and the gas I spend getting there aren't cheap.  Somehow, I keep on getting to play.  I have to thank that same pastor who paid for that expensive AC repair back in 1999.  Turns out, he likes to play golf more than I do.  I drove the same care for 10 years and now I have a truck I bought new 2+ years ago that's going to be paid off with this year's tax return.  After driving the same car for 10 years, my wife got a new car last summer.  I'm still waiting for how God is going to pay that thing off for us! (If you'd like to help with that, email me.)

A final story - my wife and I spent over $20,000 in about a year's time for the adoption of our first child in 2011.  I still don't know how we paid that much in a single year.  Our church did a fundraiser and raised over $2,000 for us.  Others gave us small amounts that added up to another $2,000+.  We received about $1,000 in adoption grants because I'm a pastor.  But we did have to put about $8,000 on a credit card.  We paid that debt off in about 8 months before we ever paid a cent of interest - by using last year's tax refund.  The day I paid it off I told Kate, "Good news!  They can't come repossess you!!"  For the past year, we've been saving every dollar we can for our next adoption.

Most Christians will never be on church staffs, but all of us have to trust God to take care of us no matter what we do.  I'm thankful that my two friends weren't swayed by the job offers.  I'm also thankful that I wasn't there when the offers were made.  I probably wouldn't have reacted as calmly as they did.

What Are You Reading?

I haven't posted anything in over a month.  I've been too busy reading.  I have lunch with a good friend, Ken Vickery, about once per month.  We discuss sports and life, but also ministry and what we're reading.  Ken was my pastor for a year as I served as his youth pastor.

I've always been impressed with Ken's READING, and without him even knowing it, he pushed/challenged me to read.  During the year I worked with Ken, I was in seminary and HAD to read constantly.  I had so many ASSIGNED books that I never got to read stuff I CHOSE to read, but also, much of what I read was simply to get it done and complete the assignment involved.  Even with the books I enjoyed, I didn't take the time to absorb the material because there were always several more books waiting to be read and written about.

Not long after starting as Ken's youth pastor, he walked in my office and checked out my library of books.  I think his opinion of me became a little inflated because of some of the books he saw.  He asked, "Have you read all of these?"  I said, "Most of them.  I didn't have a choice."  He then told me how many of them he also had in his library.

I was in seminary through July 2010, taking at least 2 seminar classes per year, so I had lots of assigned reading until just 2 years ago.  But as soon as I finished, I started reading more of what I WANTED to read.  And Ken has been the primary source I've used for my new books.  Let me say now before I forget, we all need someone to challenge, inspire, and mentor us, regardless of our vocation.  We NEED someone in our lives who has been doing WHAT WE'RE DOING longer than us.  I have several of these people in my life, and their wisdom keeps me from wasting energy by learning things the hard/uninformed way.

In the past 2+ years, I've read many of the popular books on ministry, the books "everybody else" has read (Radical, Crazy Love, Christian Atheist, UnChristian, Not A Fan, etc.). It's easy to get caught up in just reading "the latest, greatest thing" by this "latest, greatest pastor," but I refuse to read a book just because "everybody else" is doing it.  If I don't want to become like somebody, why would I read their book(s)?  I had to do enough of that kind of reading in college/seminary - reading books just to tear them apart and show where they missed the mark biblically.

I've read or re-read a few classics (Pilgrim's Progress, In His Steps, Mere Christianity . . . ), some adoption books (Adopted For Life, Orphanology [currently] . . .), and some harder books that weren't FUN (The Church by Mark Dever, Jesus Among Other Gods, Desiring God, Doctrine by Driscoll & Breshears . . .).

Ken told me about a guy named Avery Willis a while back.  I finally checked him out, and I couldn't do that without checking out a guy named Jim Putman.  Ken mentioned him, too.  He's the pastor of Real Life Discipleship in Post Falls, ID.   He was a wrestler in college so his athletic/coaching approach is appealing to me.  Jim started a church that grew from infancy to over 9,000 in about 10 years.  He didn't do it with flash, an entertainment-based worship service, or any type of gimmick.  He did it through discipleship.  He said they wanted to put their resources and energy into making disciples, not a Sunday show.

You can read about it in two books Putman's written: Church Is a Team Sport and Real-Life Discipleship.

As I read the second book, Real-Life Discipleship, and Truth That Sticks: How to Commuicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World by Avery Willis and Mark Snowden, I learned about the Bible storying method of teaching.  Willis served as a missionary in Indonesia working with primarily ORAL LEARNERS - people who learn through stories and spoken words, not through reading.  Interestingly, most Americans are also ORAL LEARNERS, even though most Americans can read at some level.  But most church teaching is presented in a way that appeals to LITERATE LEARNERS.  These books have changed the way I think about teaching/preaching.

If you're in ministry, I encourage you to read these two books:  Real-Life Discipleship and Truth That Sticks.  I don't know if these books have ever been on anybody's best seller lists, but when did popular opinion EVER get set as the standard for value/truth?

"Lord, Keep Us Safe."

 

While on a mission trip with some youth and adults from our church two weeks ago, I told our group one night during our devotional that we need to stop praying for safety all the time.  I confused them, and more than one person talked to me about it privately.

Each morning after breakfast and each night before bed, we met and had Bible study, and primarily, I took us through the last three chapters of Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman.  Those last three chapters are titled, Whenever, Wherever, and Whatever, and Idleman talks about the cost of following Jesus.  

I couldn't recall my source when I talked about this, but I remembered reading something CONVICTING about our constant prayers for safety, as if safety is the greatest thing in life.  Our desire for safety probably keeps us from following God to lots of places He's trying to lead us.  We think, "God doesn't want me to do that!  It's DANGEROUS!"  

If Jesus was primarily concerned about our safety, He never would've sent the Twelve Disciples out.  He didn't promise them physical safety.  Instead, He told them:

Matthew 10:16-21  “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. ¹⁷ But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. ¹⁸ You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.^[e] 19 When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. ²⁰ For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

When we got back home, I located my source:

From Crazy Love by Francis Chan, p. 133:

"Haven't we all prayed the following prayer? Lord, we pray for safety as we travel.  We ask that no one gets hurt on this trip.  Please keep everyone safe until we return, and bring us back safely.  In Jesus' name we pray, amen.  The exact wording may vary a bit, but that is the standard prayer we recite before leaving on mission trips, retreats, vacations, and business trips."

"We are consumed by safety.  Obsessed with it, actually.  Now, I'm not saying it is wrong to pray for God's protection, but I am questioning how we've made safety our highest priority.  We've elevated safety to the neglect of whatever God's best is, whatever would bring God the most glory, or whatever would accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the world. "

"Would you be willing to pray this prayer?  God, bring me closer to You during this trip, whatever it takes . . ."

People who are obsessed with

 Jesus aren't consumed with their

 personal safety and comfort above

 all else.  Obsessed people care

 more about God's kingdom coming

 to this earth than their own lives

 being shielded from pain or

 distress.

Not that I agree with everything any author says, but Chan's words are powerful and convicting, as are David Platt's in his book, Radical.  If you have the book, see pages 164-165 and 174-175.  Platt also talks about following Jesus in spite of the risks and dangers, in spite of the fact that it might get us hurt or killed.  

John F. Kennedy once said, "Do not pray for easy lives.  Pray to be stronger men."

My First Father's Day

OK, technically Sunday, June 17 was my 39th Father's Day, but it was my FIRST AS A FATHER!  Since I was 16, I'd wondered if the day would ever come.  The following is the most personal thing about me, something I hid from just about everybody until a year ago when I shared it with my church family during a sermon: at age 16, I discovered that because of a birth defect, I would never have biological children.

As a junior in high school, I started the year at 5'3" tall and about 110 pounds.  I lied on my driver's license and put  5'4" and 115.  Somehow that made me feel better.  I'd never really started puberty because the only testosterone my body made was the 20% of a male's total that comes from the adrenal gland.  I was a slender, small child and for years I just thought I'd always be that way, but by the time I was 12, my 10-year old brother had passed me in size.  It was humiliating and it caused me to resent him.

After 7th grade, I refused to change in front of anyone.  I'd always loved sports and P.E. had been my favorite class of the day, but no more.  I was scared to death that someone would find out.  We moved to Portsmouth, VA the summer before my 10th grade year and for P.E. there, you were docked a point off your final grade for every day you didn't shower (in open showers) after class.  I quickly discovered that there were 90 days in a semester, and the best grade I could get was a 10, because I wasn't taking a shower in front of ANYBODY.  Awesome.  Made me miss Franklin County High School in Carnesville, GA all the more.  There, nobody cared if you went to class stinking.

Near the end of my 10th grade year, after my family had moved to SC, I convinced my parents that something was wrong with me and I started seeing doctors.  I thought having a younger brother pass me in size was humiliating, but it was NOTHING compared to the exams I was put through.  I won't post my official diagnosis to keep the content of this blog PG, but after a few months of blood work, I started taking testosterone in mid-September, 1989.  That's about the same time I was sized for my high school class ring - size 8.

All I knew was, that stuff worked!  The process that should've taken 3-4 years or more happened to me in less than a year.  SUDDENLY, and I do mean suddenly, none of my clothes or shoes fit anymore.  I developed an Adam's Apple that has given me shaving fits ever since, and the deeper voice that goes with it. Our class rings arrived around February, and I was completely shocked when my size 8 ring got stuck on my  middle knuckle.  I had to get it re-sized to a 10, and then later, to a 10.5.  In four months, I'd grown about 4 inches taller and about 40 pounds heavier.  Talk about AWESOME!

But, growing so quickly caused plenty of problems, too.  I tried out for my school's baseball team about that same time - February.  I was hitting balls harder than ever before - obviously.  I could throw harder.  There were about 30 guys trying out and up to half would get cut, so I was going all out.  And it was killing me.  Never before had physical activity caused me PAIN.  My sudden growth was too much for all my connective tissues, and each night after practice, I'd hobble to my room and ice everything down for a couple hours.  Each day at school was misery because we had 3 floors and I had classes on each.  One day before practice, I went and talked to the coach and told him the real reason I wasn't going to come back.  He told me I was going to make the team and that he could really use me, so I kept trying for a couple days.  And then I told him I just couldn't do it.  I was heartbroken.  Baseball was the only organized sport I'd ever played, I was pretty good at it, and playing high school baseball had always been a dream.
 
My growth slowed over the next year, and I graduated at 5'9" and about 175 pounds.  A few people at school actually accused me of taking steroids.  I asked them how stupid they were, because steroids don't make anybody grow 6" TALLER.  But, it was obvious that SOMETHING had happened.  I had some weights at home and used them often even though I didn't really know what I was doing, but my body-type is mesomorph and I had natural muscle.  Again, it was AWESOME!

That sounds like a happy ending, and the growth was great, but I was still dealing with the fact that I'd never have biological children.  When my doctor told me that part, I started crying.  And I didn't stop for a while.  He tried to console me with humor: "Just think, you can have all the sex you want and you won't have to worry about getting anybody pregnant!"  That didn't even make me smile.  I was a committed Christian, absolutely determined to have sex with my wife and only my wife.  My wife.

My wife was on my mind from that point on, and thinking about her scared me to death.  This is the hard part of my diagnosis, if you haven't figured it out.  I'd always loved being around children, especially babies, and they seemed to like me, too.  I just expected to have 3-4 of my own in the future.  With my wife.  But with my PROBLEM, I didn't think anybody would ever want me after they found out.  So I guarded my secret.  I absolutely HAD to tell my closest MALE friends, and a few adults (male and female) who had become mentors to me.  I went to the doctor twice a month for injections, and it grew increasingly difficult to hide all those doctor visits, or the yellow doctor's receipts that I sometimes forgot to remove from my car.  These receipts had big, dark handwriting on them that said, "Testosterone Injection."

But I hid it from girls.  The first girl I ever loved found out accidentally from a friend of ours at church.  The friend overheard it from someone I'd told.  This girlfriend, whom I wasn't even dating at the time but I PLANNED TO MARRY, called me one night and asked me to come see her after she got off work.  She needed to talk to me about "something."  We went and sat in my car and she immediately started crying and asked, "Why didn't you TELL me?"  I didn't even have to ask what it was.  I knew.  And I immediately thought, "Well, I can forget about her.  Not gonna happen now."  Before I had time to think anything else, she was telling me that it didn't matter to her, and it didn't change anything.  I was SHOCKED.  And AMAZED.  My fear turned out to be for NOTHING.  But how was I supposed to know it wouldn't matter to her?  She already had her children's NAMES picked out!  We ultimately did date for about a year, and my infertility had nothing to do with our breakup.

I decided that I didn't want to go through that awful situation again, and that the next time I was even THINKING about getting serious with a girl, I'd tell her up front.  So I did.  I told the next girl I dated early on that I had a secret, and if she found out about it, she might not want anything to do with me.  One night at a church softball game, again sitting in my car, she said she thought she knew my secret, and she guessed it right away.  I was thinking, "HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET THAT FROM WHAT I SAID?  You weren't thinking "murderer," "felon," "sex-change operation," "toupee . . .???"

Two conversations, two wins for me.  I'd worried for years for nothing, so far.  But still, I was 25 years old and single, and I didn't want to be 35 years old and still single because everybody knew I couldn't have children.  So, I kept my secret to myself.

The third girl I ever got serious with already knew.  She's my wife today, but she used to be one of the students in my youth ministry.  She's always been tiny, and during her high school years, I wondered if she had a similar problem as me.  So I told her my secret and asked if she'd been examined by a doctor.  She assured me that she was OK.  I also told a few of my other students when there was an appropriate reason, with the assurance that they wouldn't tell anyone.  A couple were girls and a couple were guys, and I never INTENDED to tell them, but through some problem I was helping each deal with, my story just related and I thought it would help them.

A few years later when my future wife was no longer one of my students and I stopped seeing her as such, there were no barriers to her pursuing a relationship with me.  I didn't have to have one of those scary, intense car conversations.  Awesome!

Four years and one day after we were married, we became parents to Katherine Ava.  She was born ONE DAY before our anniversary.  We were hoping she'd be born ON our anniversary, but she had other plans.  We adopted Kate from two teenagers who put the best interests of their baby ahead of their own interests.  God led them to select us to raise their daughter.  They blessed us with a gift I was unable to give myself, or my wife.  I will forever be grateful to them.  And as long as it's in Kate's best interests, they'll always be a part of her life.

I have a big regret about my secret.  I spent most of the past 15 years PRIMARILY as a youth minister.  There are so many applications I could've made with my story, so much good I could've used it for, so many ways I could've potentially impacted more than just 4-5 lives with it.  But I was too scared.  I was selfish.  I was worried about scaring away some beautiful girl who could've been my future wife, while all that time God was working things out in ways I never would've asked for or originally wanted.  I have regrets.  But after finally being brave enough to tell my church last year, I'm no longer ashamed for people to know the truth about me.  The only reason I finally broke and told my story was because I was tired of people assuming that we were adopting because my wife was infertile.  I was tired of people asking both of us personal questions and us having to hide the truth.  I'm glad I finally got tired of it.  And I'm glad I'm no longer scared to tell the real story about why it took me so long to celebrate my first Father's Day as a father.

Why I Never Take A Bath

From Robert J. Morgan's My All in All, March 5

Hebrews 10:24-25 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. 

Morgan writes:
I once saw a brochure that said, "Why I never Take a Bath."

1. I was forced to bathe as a child.
2. People who bathe are hypocrites; they think they're cleaner than others.
3. There are so many different kinds of soap, I can't decide which is best.
4. It's boring.
5. I wash only on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter.
6. The soap makers are only after your money.
7. The last time I bathed, someone was rude to me.
8. I'm too dirty to get clean; I'd clog up the drain.
9. I'll bathe only when I find a bathroom exactly right for me.
10. I can watch other people bathing on television.
11. I can bathe at the golf course.
12. The bathroom is never the right temperature and I don't like the sound of the plumbing.

The Lord Jesus established His church to carry on His work till He comes again. There's never been an organization like it and never will be again. It has a limited engagement on earth; it began on Pentecost and will end at the Rapture. It's not perfect, but it has changed the world.

Don't stay away, but encourage others by your involvement - and all the more as you see the day approaching.

I'm Adopted! And You Should Be, Too!

Romans 8:15-17 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And since we are his children, we are his heirs.

When we surrender to God, He makes us his CHILDREN and we have FULL RIGHTS that any child gets from his father.

Since ANCIENT TIMES, adopted children have been FIRST-CLASS children with the same name, inheritance, and legal rights as biological children.

Kate is our DAUGHTER. There’s no distinction between her and a biological daughter. We’ll PROUDLY tell her and others about her background, her story, but we’ll never introduce her as our “ADOPTED DAUGHTER.” She’s 100% our DAUGHTER!

We didn’t make space for her in our storage building. I didn’t build her a room in our garage. She couldn’t be more OURS if she was our blood-daughter. She doesn’t get second-class love from us. We’ll give her the best we can afford. She’s a daughter, a grand-daughter, a cousin, and a niece.

See, ADOPTION makes you LEGITIMATE, the REAL DEAL. There’s no reason for distinction.

For everyone who invites God into their life, God is our FATHER and we have full access to His resources. He gives us a new STATUS – FORGIVEN; a new NAME – CHILD OF GOD; a new NATURE – RIGHTEOUSNESS, a new PRIORITY – TO GLORIFY HIM IN ALL WE DO; and a new DESTINATION – ETERNITY IN HEAVEN.

If you’re ONE OF GOD’S CHILDREN, ACT LIKE IT! Remember how you felt about your parents when you were a little kid? We should be as thrilled to belong to God as we were to belong to our parents. Think about that! We should PROUDLY claim God as our Father EVERY CHANCE WE GET.