snyder scoop

SOUND OF SILENCE

Psalm 62:1

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. (ESV)

God, the one and only – I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not? (MSG)

I will wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. (NLT)

Ahhhhh……silence! A highly valued commodity around my house…..one of the benefits of being an early to bed and early to rise girl is that I don’t mind getting up while there are still several hours of dark left; but one of the downfalls is that such gals seem to produce little ones who also love to get up at the crack of dawn!! My 9 year old is regularly up around 6 am and loves to come downstairs and see what we are up to! Most mornings she will find me reading or doing my devotion time. And I’ll admit that more often than not...I do tend to get a bit perturbed that I’m being disrupted in my time with the Lord…..but what I’ve come to see is that she does respect this time and is content to find something quiet to do on her own when she wakes up….knowing that this time is special and important to me.

God has given me such a voracious appetite for “eating the word” as Sharon Glasgow would say! I would just study, read, and ruminate all day if given the chance. I am just so amazed at how applicable God’s Word is to all aspects of my life and so awed at how His Word has changed me, my marriage, and my family. He is an awesome God and I just love being still and spending time learning more about His character! The more I study the more I realize how much more I have to learn and I pray that I never tire of learning more about our precious Savior and Lord. This is how I can “keep an eye on my spillage” as Stephanie Clayton says! I have a deep need to fill myself with His Word so that what overflows from my heart, my mouth, my actions, and my thoughts are only His thoughts and not my own sinful twists of selfishness.

Lord, You are truth. Your Word is truth. Thank you for your Word that is alive and living and active. Thank you for the invaluable gift of your Words for us. Thank you that reading your Word is so accessible in our country. Thank you for being with me when I study. Help me to learn more about You and let those lessons sink in deep not just in my mind, but in my heart. Amen.

SOUL CONTROL

pg. 168 Let.It.Go.

“But God often places us smack-dab inside the waiting room – on purpose. There we drum our fingers. We scheme and plot. We move and micromanage. All the while trying to control the situation….. Only when we learn to drop the reins will we finally be able to walk in faith. In the meantime, we attempt to exert control and leverage over people and situations by many clever methods.”

Before our call to adoption, I’ve never been stretched and perplexed and exhausted, and frustrated by waiting as I am right now. These chapters on soul control and dropping the reins are so practical to where we are this week!!

It would be so easy, so natural for my “type A” self to act on a list of things that would potentially make our wait for an adoption match go quicker:…..switch to another agency, call our current agency and ask what I can change in our profile book to make us appeal to expectant mothers, respond to recruitment emails even though after praying we don’t feel like this child is a match for our family, oh the possibilities are endless…..It is so very difficult to just be still and wait. Wait on His timing and not our own. Wait on the child that He has planned for our family instead of getting ahead of His plan.

I loved the prayer at the end of chapter 9 and am praying that this week as I seek to drop the reigns and just be still…

p. 182

Lord, when the situations that swarm around me (not being selected by an expectant mother, waiting on potential matches to come our way), tempt me to over control (want to change agencies, figure out what is wrong with our profile book) and underestimate your power (You are sovereign, You are in control), may I pause and speak truth to my soul (Trust and Obey). And then may I go forth (with a happy heart), content in your plans (Your timing not mine), trusting in your wisdom (You know the child that is meant for our family), and willing to accept the outcome (To you be the glory). Selah.

What-EVER!

p. 186 Let.It.Go.

Comparisons. Comparisons always deal an arresting deathblow to your contentment.

We compare and covet and desire to make a change or two in our homes or careers or families or looks. To make it happen, we kick the control feature of our personalities into turbocharged overdrive. Yes, catching up with the Joneses is a never-ending run on the treadmill of dissatisfaction.

p. 190

We compare our reality with the perception of someone else’s perfection. We compare our “yuck” with someone else’s seems-to-be “yay!” We compare our boring and familiar with someone else’s breathtaking and fabulous.

p. 191

content = Greek – “to be satisfied to the point where I am no longer disturbed or disquieted”

This, sisters, is the place God has already prepared for us in the midst of life’s storms. He is longing for us to take our eyes off of our situation and fix them solely upon him.

When we adopt this attitude, we live aloud the truth I once heard Elisabeth Elliot declare: “The difference is Christ in me. Not me in a different set of circumstances.”

When I am tempted to compare or want to get out of life’s circumstances here are some questions Karen reminds us to ask ourselves: (p. 192)

1. What does God want me to learn about him that I might never discover if he were to suddenly pluck me out of this situation?

2. What Christlike character traits is he trying to grow in me – patience, trust, compassion, faith?

3. Who is watching – either up close or from afar – and discovering what God is like by my reactions to my current situation?

4. How might my empathy for others deepen if I go through this current trial with grace and acceptance?

5. What is God trying to say to me, not by the outcome, but through the voyage?

p. 193

We need to stop tweaking and trying. Instead, we must start trusting.

This entire chapter just convicted me so much. I felt the Holy Spirit confirming our decision to be still and wait regarding our adoption journey. I felt an awareness of the blessings of waiting and the maturity that is growing in me as we walk this path by faith and not by sight.

My sweet sister, Cayce over at TheFinley7, sent a One Line a Day Five Year Memory Book to me this week with this verse:

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Psalm 77:11-12

I plan on using this sweet gift as a way to record His deeds and His work in me as we journey this path. I want to remember His works and record what He is trying to grow in me and weed out in my life.

Thank you, Father for your unfailing love and your endless mercy and grace. You are life to me.

so on our way up to beech mountain this weekend we stopped by linville caverns! i think i was waaaay more excited than anyone else about seeing the inside of a mountain, but the girlies and nate obliged and we went in!!! i was amazed at the stalactites and stalagmites!! the colors were amazing...the bats weren't really that scary and it was super cool! they even told us that the cavern was used as a hideout for both sides during the civil war....the picture below of our tour guide shows where the soldiers would make their camp fires when they were inside....when they turned out the lights on the tour we got to see total darkness which was pretty amazing too!