A Cup of Comfort Book of Bible Promises by James Stuart Bell & Susan B. Townsend

Author:James Stuart Bell & Susan B. Townsend
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Adams Media, Inc.
Published: 2010-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Different Kind

of Jonah Story

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Psalm 37:4

You’re probably familiar with the story of Jonah from the book of Genesis. Well, my Jonah story also originates in the Bible, but it comes from the book of Psalms—Psalm 37:4 to be exact. I first read the verse early one morning as I stole a little quiet time away from my three kids and husband. Cool! I thought. If I want something God will give it to me. As I spent more time meditating on the words, I realized they didn’t refer to the longings of my heart. Instead, God had promised to give me a desire for the same things He wanted for me. That was even better.

I decided to pray the verse as an open invitation to God. For thirty days I prayed, “Lord, whatever this desire is, I invite you to place it on my heart. Inspire me to share it with you and to want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything before.” He was faithful to answer my prayer, but not by causing me to want something. Instead, He showed me how much He had already given me. Suddenly, I saw my life like an outsider looking in. My husband, David, and I both worked at jobs we enjoyed. We had three bright, beautiful, and healthy children, lived in a safe community with excellent public schools, belonged to a loving church family, and enjoyed the love and encouragement of our extended families and neighbors.

At the time, I was working on an article about the many ways families paid for college. I had gone to great lengths to find families from around the country in a variety of socioeconomic situations, but as my interviews progressed, I was surprised to realize my subjects all had one thing in common. Without exception, they had adopted some or all of their children. I asked a few questions about the adoptions just to be polite, but I didn’t need the information for my article, so I soon forgot it. Or, at least I tried to. That’s when a funny thing happened.

I started encountering adoption everywhere. I would spot a Caucasian couple in the grocery store with an Asian baby, push my cart around the corner, and spot another one. I ran into old friends anxious to tell me all about their recent adoptions. People I had known for years would say out of the blue, “Well, you know I’m adopted.” I turned on the radio only to hear a program about adoption. I turned on the television, and there it was again. How in the world was I going to tell my fifty-three-year-old husband that I was pretty sure God wanted us to adopt?

I confided in my friend, Paula, a Christian whose opinion I valued. “Mimi,” she said, “God is not in the business of breaking up marriages. Do you really think He would put this on your heart and not David’s, too?” She made sense, but I was still scared.

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