“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” [I Peter 4:10]
When I was going through infertility, nothing about it felt like a gift. It was more like a curse that had sought and found me for reasons I couldn’t explain. If someone had asked me, “How might this experience be a gift to you?” I would have felt patronized, defensive and angry. No one was helping me find wisdom or insight, and I didn’t think I had the time. I was busy trying to rush a heartbeat into an empty womb.
But, several years after our infertility journey ended, I was ready to ask some questions. Why had we had to suffer so much to bring our children into the world? Why had so many other forms of suffering been piled on during that same season? What had been the purpose of all that pain and grief? Why had it happened?
I wasn’t asking in anger (as I might have been years before). I wasn’t picking a fight with God. I just wondered if there had ever been a reason. Truthfully, I didn’t expect to get an answer.
But I did.
“This happened so you would know you were never alone.”
I didn’t hear a voice. It was more like I suddenly knew the answer with certainty, down deep in my spirit.
I wondered, ‘What am I supposed to do with that information?’
Again, there was no sound. But my spirit received the answer very clearly: “Find those who feel lost and tell them they are not alone.”
In that moment, God showed me there had been a purpose for all we’d been through. Throughout our infertility journey, He’d demonstrated His faithfulness – over and over – in unforgettable, life-changing ways. He’d done it, in part, so that I could tell others with absolute certainty that He would do the same for them, too.
That moment signaled the end of one journey, and the beginning of another.
I never set out to create or lead a Bible study for infertile couples. Or to write a book. Or to help churches and hospitals launch groups. Or to spend hours every week writing blog posts. But that’s what God had planned all along.
He wanted me to tell infertile couples, “you are not alone” every way possible. He wanted me to tell you that He has promised to be with you always, and He will be. That He walks every step of this journey beside you – to comfort, to strengthen, to guide you. That He has a plan and purpose, and that He intends to bless you beyond what you can ask or imagine.
I hope this blog gives you insight I never had on my journey. I hope it gives you peace when you’re anxious, comfort when you’re grieving, and inspiration that urges you to look past each day’s struggle to the joy that awaits you.
That joy includes a child God has always intended for you. If you’re willing, it also includes the joy of paying forward God’s goodness and faithfulness by using whatever gift you receive through this experience to serve others, “faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
May it be so.
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For more inspiration and cause for hope, read Pregnant With Hope: Good News for Infertile Couples or visit PregnantWithHope.com
Pregnant with Hope 