Promises of Ellie

I love how God speaks to us through music. We had a sweet girl sing at church today, Briana Campbell, who sang Martina McBride's song, Anyway. Here are the lyrics (so I can refresh my memory of them when I'm feeling all down about things):

You can spend your whole life building

something from nothing

One storm can come and blow it all away

Build it anyway

You can chase a dream

that seems so out of reach

and you know it might not ever come your way

Dream it anyway

Chorus: God is great,

but sometimes life ain't good

And when I pray

it doesn't always turn out like I think it should

But I do it anyway,

I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy and it's hard to believe

that tomorrow will be better than today

Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart,

for all the right reasons,

and in a moment they can choose to walk away

Love 'em anyway

You can pour your soul out singing a song you believe in

that tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang

Sing it anyway, yeah sing it anyway

I sing, I dream, I love, anyway

So God says to me, "Hey, just because you were praying for this Taiwan adoption to pan out, it just couldn't. I know why. You have to trust me. You have to continue on with the dream of Ellie. She is in China. She will come. You will have to wait." This was shortly after He revealed, from His Word, the following (this was on the way to church -- it preceded the verse we were supposed to study for our class),

. . . which your fathers did not know

that He might humble you and that He might test you

to do you good in the end . . .

~ Deuteronomy 8:16

I feel that we are being tried and tested for our good in the end. I remember a verse God sent me one day during our early wait in the domestic program. It came in an email devotional the day I had said to a friend, "I'd just like God to send me an email." While this verse was to Habakkuk who questioned when the wicked would be justly punished, I felt, that day, that it was so appropriate to how I was feeling.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.

~ Habakkuk 2:3

And while I'm writing about these verses, here are others that continue to help during the wait.

Delight yourself in the joys of the Lord

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

~ Psalms 37:4

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

I will bring your children from the east

and gather you from the west.

~ Isaiah 43:5