WINSDAY! {Mighty to Save Printable}

Again, this is a day late because again, yesterday was a travel day for me and the boys and I just did not have a chance to post!

Better late than never right! :)

The winner of the $25 WOTP gift certificate IS...

Congratulations Grig!!

Email me at worthyoftheprize@yahoo.com to claim your prize!

And now for this week's giveaway...

We have a free frame filler printable for you designed by the lovely and talented Mary Jo Smith of 517 Creations!

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this saying!

And this is one of my favorite passages of scripture in the entire Bible.

What a beautiful picture of how powerful and at the same time how loving our God is.

And the best part is that we are giving this away to anyone who wants it!

If you want a copy, simply go HERE to download it.

You can frame it and display it in your home as a reminder of our great God who saves!

Or simply download it and use it as a desktop background or screensaver for your computer!

It was inspired by one of my favorite worship songs of all-time, Laura Story's "Mighty to Save."

Go HERE to listen to it if you are not familiar.

For some reason God has laid it on my heart to pray that he will "move the mountains."

I have been praying this prayer for several weeks now related to different things.

I love the line in the song that says, "Savior, He can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save. He is mighty to save."

No matter what the mountains are in our lives, we need to know that God is capable of moving them.

Many of you who are reading these words are adoptive parents and ministry wives. You deal with BIG mountains daily.

Will you {I} trust that God is in control and that He knows what is best for us {me}?

The hard part for me is not knowing that God is powerful enough but being able to say like Daniel...

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. {Daniel 3: 17-18}

If you are familiar with the story of my friend Melanie of Happy Hartman Farm, you know she has faced some major mountains in her life recently and that she has seen the faithful hand of God through them.

Listen to what she said on her blog after FINALLY rescuing her boy and bringing him home from the mental institution in Eastern Europe that her family adopted him out of after he was put there because he was born with down syndrome...

I am reading a book I picked up in the airport and I really like it and highly reccomend it,,, Title: THE DIRTY LIFE a Memoir of farming, food, and Love. There was something I read that really struck me... here it is

When we would talk about our future in private, I would ask Mark if he really thought we had a chance. Of course we had a chance, he`d say, and anyway, it didn`t matter if this venture failed. In his view, we were already a success, because we were doing something hard and it was something that mattered to us. You don`t measure things like that with words like success or failure, he said. Satisfaction comes from trying hard things and then going on to the next hard thing, regardless of the outcome. What mattered was whether or not you were moving in a direction you thought was right.

This paragraph comes after she explains all of the subtle comments and actions of those around them that were giving help and support but really didn`t think they`d make it and it was obvious. And how it would wear on her.

I don`t know, I can see alot of paralells of this to our adoption process,,, not just about all of the uncertainty of it all... And the months of hard work... where others pitched in to help, but couldn`t help to let their concerns be heard,,, sometimes more obvious and sometimes a bit more manipulatively. But also our hearts... many cannot understand our hearts. And then there are those that just seemed to get it completely, even if it was not something they were interested in doing at the time. Don`t get me wrong, I am not complaining, we appreciate every penny, every prayer, and every encouraging word... Even from the doubters :)! Trust me we know that we have struggles ahead... We have older children, they are not special needs and there has been heartbreak and trials and our patience tested to the core. We have little bitty ones, and they are not perfect, nor are we... So such as life... Here we go... My husband always says that nothing worth having ever comes easy!

Oh how she inspires me.

She will never know how much her journey has blessed me.

And I love how my friend Jen of Team Chase 4 and Counting {who is in the process of adopting 2 children from Ethiopia} put it when she said...

The journey is difficult, it stretches me in every aspect, but it is SO worth it. Not just because of the end result {which I look forward to with great hope}, but because of what I am learning along the way.

And that, my friends, is what I truly believe it is all about: the journey.

If you are an adopting family or a ministry family or any other family, cherish the journey.

God uses it to bless us, to teach us and to make us more like Christ.

And even though it is tough, it is worth it.

And you just never know who you are blessing along the way.

{Please share the free printable and leave a comment letting us know if you download it.}

Linking Up With {Encouraging Words Wednesday}: