Be Still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

I don't know what it is like at your home but, at ours it is always busy, noisy and active. It seems like the loudest time is when we call everyone to dinner... the kids are excited, hungry and talking. They settle down when we give thanks and a peace settles for a moment as we take time to thank the Lord for our day and food. We have other times of quiet and stillness.. during times of school, when we do family devotions and pray and at nite when they have gone to bed...There is such power and our hearts are touched deeply when there is stillness. Tears have been shed and children have been held and hearts have opened up within this time of stillness....

Last nite when I asked the kids about their first mom... at first they all talked and the room was full of lots of sharing and then a stillness came after we all settled down with their thoughts of life before they came home.... we knew that with everything in our past .. God is still God, and He can use our life for a purpose if we choose to allow Him to. When we cease focusing on ourselves, there is, " the peace of God which transcends all understanding"-Phil. 4:7 ; "quietness and trust" Isa. 30:15, which is the source of all strength ; a "great peace" that will never "make them stumble" Ps. 119:165; and a deep rest, which the world can never give nor take away. Deep within the center of the soul is a chamber of peace where God lives and where, if we will enter it and quiet all the sounds, we can hear His "gentle whisper" 1 Kings 19:12

Even in the fastest wheel that is turning, if you look at the center, where the axle is found, there is no movement at all. And even in the busiest life, there is a place where we may dwell alone with God in eternal stillness.

There is only one way to know God : "Be still, and know." "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him" Hab. 2:20

Sometimes we all have walked under starless skies that have dripped darkness like a drenching rain. We have despaired from the lack of light from the Son. The gloomy darkness has loomed above us as if it would last forever... and from that dark there seemed to be no soothing voice to mend our broken hearts.

For our adopted children they have experienced such darkness and despair... but we as their parents hope to give them the chance to find the still small voice of the Lord... to be able to say back to the Lord themselves, "Your soft whisper of eternal love spoke more sweetly to our brusied and bleeding souls than any winds that blew across our life before. It was your "gentle whisper" that spoke to us. We were listening and we heard You, and then we looked and saw Your face, which was radiant with the light of Your love. And when we heard Your voice and saw Your face, new life returned to us, just as life returns to withered blossoms that drink the summer rain. Paul and I have seen many of our children's faces express this and it has been very life giving to us to be a part of helping our older kids overcome their past and look with hope to the future.