My obedience (or disobedience) effects more than just me!

My obedience (or disobedience) effects more than just me! That was the theme of the first of a sermon series our pastor is doing on the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Knew God wanted me to get up...so listened to the sermon that I missed last week and boy did God have something to say! I would highly recommend you watch the sermon! It is great! You can get it on podcast or watch it here.

The sermon is based on I Kings 17 when Elijah goes to Ahab and tells him there will be a drought. This chapter is filled with obedience that doesn't make sense by both Elijah and the widow. God has been calling me to an area of obedience that I just keep dragging my feet. I have all kinds of excuses for why I'm not doing it. Legitimate excuses by worldly standards...an even Christian standards. But bottom line is when God says move, and you sit, you are disobedient!

God has said get the domestic program running for Addy's Hope. He knocked down my first argument months ago: but with seven kids, God, I can't go to work again! They need me! I need to be full-time, undistracted mom to these children! God spoke during another sermon and told me to lay that idea of "mom" on the alter just like Abraham did Isaac. Isaac was the key to God's fulfilled promise to Abraham of a multitude of descendants and God told Abraham to kill him...and Abraham - in faith - put him on the altar and raised the knife! That is what God told me do with my idea of "mom" to seven!

My next argument is that I can't work with seven kids! Baby Girl is 17 months old...need I say more all you mothers of toddlers?! Trying to do something like write policies or make a professional phone call with a 17 month old climbing on the table getting into the chocolate jar is not really my idea of convenient or really even possible some days. Yet, we do not have the money for me to put her in child care. God knocked that argument down by sending friends who have a passion for adoption who have volunteered to watch her so I can get the policies written.

I could go on and on with my excuses and God's answers! But this morning as I listened to Daniel's message about Elijah, I was convicted of the ripple effect of my disobedience. This is something I have thought about often over the past 6-9 months as God has continually sent people to remind me of His command...people that need the services Addy's Hope will offer once this program is open. Families who want to adopt from the state, but are stuck in the system because there is not an adoption only minded agency in West Texas. They are having to become foster parents and THEN adopt...even when they have identified children on TARE they are already willing to adopt. There's a faster way for those parents! We could serve them! Ripple number one!

Then there is the state! Everyone knows that fostering is not about the money (if you are doing it for the right reasons)! But foster care costs the state and thus tax payers billions of dollars every year! Daniel stated a statistic in his sermon that in 2009 25.1 BILLION dollars went to foster care federally! I know here in Texas, the Department of Family Protective Services has received a budget cut like no other! So the system charged with protecting our children that was running on shoe string budget anyway is now cut even more! Don't get me started on my thoughts of those cuts....but lets look at numbers a minute. We had Paizley as a foster placement for one month before she was moved to an adoptive placement. Foster parents receive a daily stipend for caring for a foster child. It's much more than I ever imagined before we started fostering. Let me say again, money should NEVER be the reason you foster! But when you are fostering, you do receive money. When Paizley was moved into an "adoptive placement" in our home, the money of course is cut. When you adopt older children you still get a subsidy to help offset the costs and to encourage families to take on the harder to place children (at least I think that is the motivation behind it). Anyway, when she moved into the adoptive placement, the state immediately began saving $500 a month! That's $6,000 a year....and that's just ONE child. And that doesn't include the money saved on salaries of workers having to monitor her case, etc! There are over 6,000 children in Texas in foster care ready to be adopted. If we found families for each of those children, the state would save over $36,000,000 a year!!!!! Oh my word! What could we do to care for children if we weren't having to pay out that $36,000,000 a year in foster care?! Not to mention the cost and reward that far exceeds those numbers to these children being in stable, permanent families to heal and become successful adults and citizens! Ripple number two...

And I could go on and on with the ripples! God has revealed again and again to me this morning the effects of my disobedience...not just to me and my family, but to everyone He intends to touch or bless through the work He does with Addy's Hope.

I had already set today aside to do work on policies and such. But God was gracious enough to remind me that I am not just obeying for obedience sake! When I obey, I open up the doors for Him to bless me and my family. I allow the path for Him to fulfill the promises He has spoken. None of that can be done in disobedience.

Am I scared? YES! Do I have all the answers? NO! Just like Daniel pointed out, Elijah spoke the words to Ahab that put him in danger BEFORE God revealed the plan to protect and provide for him! As you know from my previous posts, I struggle with how most of my big "faith" steps have turned out (which Daniel also addressed and I'll save for another time!), but one thing I can testify to and can't deny is that when I am walking in faith, God reveals ONE STEP AT A TIME! When I take this step, He will show the next! And there will be blessings along the way! Will there be heartache and trials too, probably! But if I keep my focus on HIM, those will pale in comparison to His blessings and the peace of walking in obedience!

My instructions from God that I need to obey is setting up the agency's domestic program...what is yours? Let me encourage you to take a step toward obedience in that area today! Don't wait! Slow obedience is no obedience! We'll do it together!