Celebrating Adoption...

November is National Adoption Month, with National Adoption Day coming up this Saturday, 11/21/09....setting aside time to celebrate adoption.

Here are some questions to get you thinking about how you can celebrate adoption - not just this Saturday or this month, but all the time.

• Do I consider myself a follower of Christ? Praise God that I can be His child because He has adopted me into His family because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
  
• Do I know anyone who has adopted a child? How can I look for ways to encourage them in their journey of parenting adopted children?
• Do I know anyone who is adopted? When can I make time to spend with them and ask about what it's been like?
• Do I know anyone who is planning to adopt? How can I support them emotionally, spiritually, and/or financially?
• In what ways can I generally be more encouraging and supportive of adoption on a daily basis?

As you think through these things, I would very highly recommend this book, Adopted for Life, by Russell Moore. He does an amazing job of describing the theology of adoption in a very personal way through his personal story - it's amazing. And...while my thoughts are not as good as his, I certainly have some and would love to chat with you if you want :)

Always reason to celebrate this...

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." - Ephesians 1:3-8

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." - John 1:12-12

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." - Romans 8:16-18

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" - 1 John 3:1

Praise the Lord!