Praying the Psalms- Psalm 20

Jenny has begun a journey of praying her way through the Psalms that I have decided to join. Each weekend, we will pray through one psalm and post our prayer and/or meditations on that psalm as the Lord leads. Check out her journey and join us in Praying the Psalms.

Psalm 20 

"May he give you the desire of your heart
       and make all your plans succeed."  Ps 20:4

I cannot read this psalm, especially this verse, without remembering a time in my life when fervent prayer was my companion.  T. and I had two little boys at the time, one about 4 and one about 1.  I knew we would have one more child eventually to complete our family.  Good friends of ours had just brought home their daughter from China.  Other friends were in the processing of adopting their daughter from Guatemala.  Our friends' experiences with adoption so touched my heart that I could not shake the idea that our family should adopt, too.

I brought the idea of adoption up to my husband and while he thought it was wonderful- he had two much loved nephews that joined the family through adoption- he did not feel called to it like I did.  For the first few weeks, I would mention adoption frequently, hoping that he would change his mind but he hadn't.  Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I decided not to bring it up anymore and just commit it all to prayer.  My prayer at that time was simple but genuine: "Lord, if this desire of my heart is of You then plant the same desire in my husband's heart.  However, if it is not Your will for our family, then remove it from me and do not leave me with yearnings or bitterness."  

Over the next several months, my desire to adopt grew stronger and stronger.  I found myself on adoption agency websites and bulletin boards, learning all I could about agencies and countries open for adoption.  However, as I had decided, I never brought it up to my husband and he never mentioned it to me.  During this time, God granted me great peace as I waited and prayed.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am a doer and waiting for things to happen is not usually a peaceful experience for me.  But God was faithful to give me peace as I waited on His answer.      

Many prayer-filled months passed and I received an e-mail about an adoption information seminar in the area by one of the agencies I knew had a good reputation.  I clearly felt I should mention it to my husband.  I was certain he would say "no thanks" but to my great surprise he replied "let's go!"  The meeting was both informative and moving.  T. and I went for dinner afterwards and he shared that he wanted to adopt!  I was over the moon.  We soon heard clearly from the Lord about which country we were to adopt from and we were on our adoption journey.

I will write more about our journey to our daughter here sometime.  (Praying Psalm 34 was crucial near the end of our adoption process so I know I will share more then :)  For now, I want to share that God was so faithful to His Word for me in Psalm 20:4.  He gave me the desire of my heart and made all my plans succeed!