Satan is a punk!

I believe strongly that Satan does not want us advocating for the orphan. He doesn't want us doing God's work. He doesn't want children coming home to Christian families. I believe Satan will attack a family who is adopting. I believe that he will throw every obstacle in our way to keep from making a major impact for the Kingdom of God. Satan is a punk.

The Holy Spirit wasn't something we talked about all that much growing up in a traditional Southern Baptist background. I think the Holy Spirit kinda freaks some people out. I grew up mainly skimming over the verses regarding the Holy Spirit. Not really talking in depth about His power. God promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to every believer. In Acts 2:38 Peter says, "And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" I need Him living inside of me to help me through my day to day life. I feel His promptings. I hear Him speaking. The more I listen and stay tuned-in to Him, the more clearly I hear him. When I choose not to listen to Him, it becomes more difficult to sense Him and hear what He's saying.

God has been showing us that He wanted us to do something big regarding the orphan and that He wanted us to be willing to say YES. The Holy Spirit was revealing to me that Satan could/would try to stop us. I think that is why He wanted that YES before we started to dive in and begin putting our feet to the pavement.

This week, I have felt like we were under spiritual attack and that Satan was throwing out a few of his nasty tricks to keep me from meeting with 2 local adoptive mamas who have a heart for the orphan regarding a local adoption/orphan ministry. When you get 3 mamas (we have 12 kids between the 3 of us) to nail down a date/time that we can all meet, the only thing left is an 8:30 at night meeting at a Starbucks on a Wednesday night - after we've schooled all day and once we all get home from piano lessons, church, Bible study and get those kiddos headed to bed. So the time was set. We're gonna chat about a local adoption/foster-care ministry and orphan advocacy.

Wednesday morning at 1 am, Zoe is awake and crying. Her nose is running something awful. That's strange. She's never sick. No symptoms prior to that. She was up from 1 -3 am. I knew we had to be up at 5:30 AM for our field-trip. Whatever, we've got things to do, so off on a homeschool field-trip we head with a pack of tissues in hand and I popped her in the carrier for the day.

By the time we got home from our field-trip and got the boys off to TaeKwonDo, Zoe's nose was like a fountain. It was terrible and she was miserable. Then Tona sends me a text: "I have 2 kiddos who are acting pitiful. I think they're getting sick. I don't think I can leave hubby with this." I call Jewel to let her know and we decide to re-schedule. I text hubby (who has the boys at TaeKwonDo) that the meeting was off for tonight. This re-scheduling would have had to postpone this meeting by more than 3 weeks- the next available date for us all to meet. I prayed: "God, you've got to handle this. I feel your promptings to do this - show me what You want me to do". An hour later, Tona sends another message saying the kids perked up when they got home and she thinks Mo can handle it. I call Jewel back and told her that the meeting was back on if she can still make it. Move 'outta our way, Satan! We've got some babies and families who need us to stand in the gap for them.

I skipped Bible Study Wednesday night since Zoe was sick - figured the Children's Ministry would rather I kept my snotty baby at home. I decided to pray for the evening ahead and that my mind would be clear at this meeting. I expected Michael home with the boys soon and we'd have supper together before I had to head out.

Michael and the boys come home and we had an argument over something random and totally stupid. He said something snarky and I snapped at him. This was all over something totally stupid and insignificant. We rarely argue, so this really irritated me. I was tired (we had to be up at 5:30 that morning for our field-trip and I was going on just a few hours sleep since Zoe had been up in the middle of the night) and irritated. I KNOW this was Satan trying to keep me from going and if I did go, he didn't want my mind clear about what needed to be done for this ministry. I apologized to my husband and said "pray for us" as I walked out the door.

The whole drive to East Memphis, I was just asking for the Holy Spirit's protection. I was telling God that I knew we were under attack and that I know this wasn't the last of Satan's attempts to de-rail us. Wouldn't you know, I got little confused about which way to turn and I took a little detour - through an area that I am relatively familiar with. I needed to turn RIGHT on Poplar and I couldn't find the ramp that took me that way. This might not've been Satan. This might've been my lack of ability to navigate and my lack of all things directional. I am seriously directionally-impaired.

I made it to Starbucks that night and we had a great night of sharing our hearts with one another. We talked Adoption, Foster Care, Orphan Care, Advocacy, and LOTS more. I can't wait to share some of the BIG things that God is doing through His people right here in Memphis. He's calling up His Church to defend the fatherless. It's exciting stuff. It was amazing - it was like seeing a little peek of the Father's heart for these kiddos and their families. I am humbled to be a part of it.

I came home and plopped down on the couch next to my sweet hubby and just said "Satan is tricky and I hate him". We laughed about how he tried to throw off our night and my mind and how he really doesn't want us to make an eternal impact. He feels threatened - he should 'cause we're not stopping. And praise the Lord, we've got the Holy Spirit to help keep him off of us and to help us persevere through whatever he throws our way.

Satan is getting on my nerves, but he's not going to stop us! I think I need this shirt:

~Paula