Of Youthful Zeal..

Her daughter wept with desire to

  adopt that little one who was born with hydrocephalus and microcephaly, 

and felt quite put out that her parents seemed to be less motivated than she felt they should be.

 She sat down for a good chat with her mama, 

who told her what she had learned from her own years of

 letting God write zeal and passion on her heart 

for the brokenness in the world around her. 

What her mama said was this:

"God BLESS you for having zeal and passion for things of eternal value. 

You could be out there flirting with boys,

 mall shopping, pushing the limits of your daddy's standards for you, 

rebelling, raging against 'restrictions', 

and filling your life with many earthly pursuits. 

But you have chosen to let God fill your life

 with love for the orphans and that is a blessing.

I would love to rescue

 every orphan, 

or hurting wife, 

or broken teenager, 

or home that is struggling. 

I would spend my life defending each and every one. 

But I am one.

 I cannot do them all, 

but I try to pray for the ones I know

first of all,

and I stand before this door (the baby mentioned above), 

not thinking it is open or shut, 

but rather, asking God what He would have us to do with the door. 

That is the first place we should always go 

when presented with a need.

 It says we are willing to walk thru that door

 if God is opening it for us.

I love your passion and zeal, but you have to learn to pray first. 

Prayer releases your heart to God and creates a place where you can 

be willing to go or stay, do or enable someone else to do.

 It is the place to find direction. Learn to pray first of all.

And in your praying, lay that baby at Jesus' feet.

 Ask Him to take care of her, and then pray for her family, 

who ever that is, who will adopt her (you  never know...it might even be us!). 

Then, before you get up, remember Paul's admonition to live 

a thankful life and thank God:

1. for your grandparents, who adopted 8 children

2. for the woman you follow on Facebook 

that has opened her heart to six of His 'orphans'

3. for the woman in Haiti who has devoted at least 7 

of her years to caring for orphans and adopting one

4. for the family in MI who have adopted children,

 many who were going to be aborted" 

And the mother's heart wept with joy that her prayers of the years were

 bringing forth fruit, for she had oft times prayed that 

God would let her children live extraordinary lives while they lived on earth, 

lives that burned with the fire of Holy Spirit zeal. 

She counted it a great privilege to help her daughter

 direct her zeal in a way that God can use it. 

And she was humbled that she, who had at one time despised children, 

and had needed to thoroughly repent of it so that she

 could bring her children to God,
was allowed to live a life where He

restored what was broken,

and taught her faithfully how to 

parent His way

(and she is still learning!).

The End...

I have met many youth in my years,

and increasingly so in the past

8 years.

I love it that I get to be a part of the lives of youth 

who have a passion to live the life Jesus came to give us. 

They need our encouragement, our support and our prayers.

 And they need adults in their lives who are passionate 

about living out simplicity in Christ, putting faith into action, 

and who provide places for these young people to learn how

 to lay down their lives for others, 

and where they are given opportunities to put their zeal into action.