Guest Author Post: Praying Through Your Adoption by Michele Scott

We are blessed to have Michele Scott share her heart on the role of prayer in adoption and how her book, Praying Through Your Adoption came to be. This book is a treasure for those seeking to adopt and those encouraging others going through adoption. I have a copy of the book to give away. Post a comment and I'll select a recipient to receive the book in the mail. It will be a blessing. 

Michele, what can you tell us about yourself, your childhood, and the present?

I grew up as an only child in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Faith was a vital part of our family life, so I believed in God from an early age. About mid-way through college, after heartaches and some poor decisions, I decided to trust Jesus and the plans He has for my life. I graduated, moved to the suburbs, and married my husband, Eric. I worked in the corporate world and Christian ministry before becoming a work-at-home mom through adoption. 


When did you first realize you wanted to become a writer? 

I started writing poems and stories for fun as a child. I even had a poem published in Highlights for Children. Through high school and college I enjoyed researching and writing papers, but I never considered becoming a professional writer until I wrote Praying Through Your Adoption. 

What inspired you to write Praying Through Your Adoption?

Author: Michele C. Scott

I've been talking to God in prayer for as long as I can remember. I turned to prayer during our infertility, and I had planned to pray through a pregnancy if that had been God's plan. While adopting our 

son from Russia, we experienced painful delays and obstacles, such as increased fees and additional paperwork. At a particularly low point in the adoption process, I participated in an online prayer vigil that directed me to pray for very specific aspects of adoption – from government officials to waiting children. I realized the power of prayer specifically in adoption and saw the need to help other families pray through their adoptions as well. 

See No Evil

Would you rather have children who look good or children who understand grace and their own frailty when it comes to sin? You might answer "both"--but we can't often have both.

My pastor once told me about a prayer that he prayed for his children. He asked God not to let his children get away with secret sin. That is bold for a southern pastor. I always admired him for caring more about his children being right before God than looking good before his congregation. God faithfully answered this pastor's prayers--and it wasn't always pretty.

In Matthew 23:5, Jesus criticized the Pharisees for doing all of their good deeds for men to see. I can parent that way as well.

I always know when the appearance becomes too important.

-I reprimand my children for how a deed looks to others rather than what it looks like to God.

-I am more embarrassed before friends than grieved before God over a wrong deed by my children.

-I tend to boast of my children's spiritual deeds before other parents.

The longer I am a parent, the more I realize that teaching my children how to make things right with others and especially God after they sin, is an important life lesson. Imagine our grownup children in marriages or jobs where they don't know how to "make things right". I would say simply looking good won't get them far in life.

I challenge us all to pray a dangerous prayer over our children:

Lord, please guard my children in the way that they walk. Protect them from evil but more importantly protect them from being conquered by secret sin. Bring it to light that they will be free.

And after you pray this brave prayer, don't be surprised when God answers and His light reveals yuck. It really is a gift from God. And we have the opportunity to model a gracious heavenly Father as we help our children with their struggles.