A Surrendered Mom

Leslie Basham: Thalia thought her daughter would get married and then live close by. Instead, that daughter is living on the other side of the globe. Here's Thalia:

Thalia: Yes, as a mom, I had my own plans, my own desires--but God's plans are so much better for our children than our plans are. They are not only better, but they are perfect.

Leslie Basham: Happy Thanksgiving. This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I hope you will stop the parade or the football game for a few minutes and listen as Nancy talks with a missionary named Shannon. She was our guest two and half years ago and has returned to talk with us. Here's Nancy to get things going.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Well Shannon, when we first talked two and a half years ago, you were a 26 year-old, single, young woman going to spend, as far as you knew, the rest of your life in an Asian country as a medical missionary.

And as far as you knew, you had relinquished the prospect of ever having a husband. Yet, as we sit in the studio today, you just got back last night from your honeymoon. You are glowing!

Our listeners can't see what I'm seeing, but your smile is just as big as the world. And I had the joy of attending your wedding just over a week ago and what a joyous occasion that was. So, thank you, Shannon, for coming and sharing with our Revive Our Hearts listeners.

Shannon: Thank you, Nancy. It's a joy to be here and to talk about what the Lord has done.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: We don't have time for all the details of the story. It's been fun for me to see that unfold as we have had e-mail communication over the last couple of years--but you were serving the Lord as a nurse practioner in a country in Asia that's largely closed to the Gospel and missionaries.

And God brought across your path, a national doctor who had also consecrated his life to the Lord. But was it a surprise to you, Shannon, when the Lord brought this doctor into your life and began to make it clear to both of you that He was bringing you together to be husband and wife?

Shannon: Absolutely, it was, Nancy, because I really wasn't looking for it or focused on it. And when it came, it was just such a wonderful thing that I could just accept so readily and so happily from His hands as being from Him because I knew I had not done anything and my husband had not done anything to try to make it happen.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I often say, "I love living under providence." And your life and how God brought you and your husband together is such a picture of God's providence. You know, when we hold onto our lives--Jesus said, "We will lose them." But if we are willing to lay them down and let them go, He says, "You will get back more than you have ever given up" (John 12:24-26).

Now you knew when you said, "Yes," to this man--to be his wife"¦When you said, "I do," that you were making a commitment to spend the rest of your life"¦likely on the other side of the world, serving the Lord in a third-world country that is largely unevangelized"¦Was that hard? I mean, I know you were in love, but you were still facing the prospect of a lot of surrender in the years ahead.

Shannon: Right. And I'll just be totally honest with you. I had always believed that the Lord was calling me to be a career missionary. And as my husband and I began to talk, he made it very clear to me that a decision to pursue this relationship to marriage meant truly, that this would be a life calling with him--because the Lord had called him as a full-time missionary to his own countrymen in this particular part of the world.

And I would not ever be returning to the United States to live, in all likelihood. Because the Lord had called him, then I would join him in that calling.

And truly, just as Ruth said to Naomi, "your people will become my people"--she was willing to relinquish her people and her land and to stay with Naomi (Ruth 1:16)--and this is what he said to me, "Are you willing to do this? You must be willing to recognize that this would be the cost, but it would also be your great joy if this is what the Lord is calling you to do with me--to serve with me."

Actually, he didn't know it at the time, but he couldn't have scripted it any better. The very desire of my heart for years had been that, if the Lord would give me a husband, I knew that I would not marry a man who was not called to full-time missions.

So, he probably thought that he might scare me away by saying this--but he wanted to make the cost known. And really, he was just saying"¦

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Exactly what you wanted to hear.

Shannon: The desire of my heart. That was not a difficult thing to accept.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: But, Shannon, it wasn't just you involved in giving your life to the Lord. You have parents here in the United States who also have had to make a huge surrender of you to the Lord.

We're so blessed today to have your mom with us in the studio. Thalia, I am going to put you on the spot and just say, as a mom, how have you been able to release your daughter, first to the mission field and then to marriage knowing that Shannon and her husband will be living many thousands of miles away? As a mom, this has to have been very challenging and difficult for you.

Thalia: Yes, Nancy. This has been difficult--for a mom's heart to surrender to God's will for my child. As parents, as a mom, I had a plan for my daughter, and that plan included for her to be close at home.

This has been a process of learning to surrender to God's sovereignty and His will for my child. I'm learning that, yes, as a mom I had my own plans, my own desires, but God's plans are so much better for our children than our plans are. And they are not only better, but they are perfect. There is a peace and joy that God gives us as we learn to surrender to His will.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You know, Thalia, to me, I sat at that wedding over a week ago and I thought, Thalia is the hero in this thing"¦and your husband as well"¦and Shannon's beautiful"¦and her husband was very handsome"¦and they make a great looking couple"¦and their surrender to the will of God"¦but to know what must be going through a mother's heart -- the mixed emotions, even as maybe Mary of Nazareth experienced, as she had that child that she knew she was going to be giving up for the sake of the Gospel so that others could come to Christ.

I have been so touched to watch you through this process. I have shared this with you before as I think about how many mothers and parents keep their children back from doing the will of God because they want them safe, they want them secure, they want them making a certain amount of money.

And you have said, "I am willing to relinquish my plans and my desires so that God can be glorified and His kingdom can come in this world." That's really been your heart, hasn't it?

Thalia: Yes. Yes, I'm humbled by your words. I do not deserve them by any means. But, as Shannon shared, this life is so short and it's not about us, but it's about God--our awesome God and His glory, for the nations to worship Him and to come to know Him.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Thank you for sharing, Thalia. Shannon, thank you for sharing your heart. And I know there are other mothers probably listening today. As you are praying, moms, about God's will and God's plan and God's future for your children, make sure you don't hold on to them in a way that would keep them from being and doing all that God has for them.

I know we are speaking to some single young women who are considering what God may have for their lives and thinking, Maybe God wants me in some sort of vocational Christian service, maybe in another part of this world. But I'm afraid if I do what God's calling me to do, that maybe I will never get married.

Well, Shannon, your story kind-of sounds like a fairy-tale ending. You surrendered your life to the Lord. You said, "Yes," to the Lord. You gave Him your desires for marriage, and now God gave you this wonderful, handsome, godly husband.

But as you and your husband go now next week, back to this other part of the world to a country in Asia, you are going to continue to need God's grace as a couple now, as you serve the Lord in this difficult part of the world. Tell us a little bit about what you will be doing and how our listeners can pray for you.

Shannon: My husband and I serve in a remote area in the northern part of this country in a mission hospital. It's a small mission hospital that had been set up there, back in the 1950s, by American missionaries. We have a medical ministry there.

My husband is the surgeon for the hospital and I oversee the obstetrics and gynecology there. And so, what we do--basically, we work a job there--a medical job, six or seven days a week.

But the reason that we are there is so that those in this area, which is a very unreached area that has long had a reputation for being very resistant to the Gospel"¦but through the skills that the Lord has given us in medicine, our desire and our prayer is that the Lord will bring to us those hearts that He has already been preparing for the hearing of the Gospel.

In fact, that's what we have already seen. As people come in to be treated, they are very open to having us pray with them. And then we are able to ultimately share the Gospel and the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And so our purpose, really, for being there is so that we might name and lift up and exalt the name of Jesus Christ so that those who are yet to know Him, who have yet to bow the knee to Him, might come to receive Him. And that ultimately, a church may be planted among these unreached people.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Even though we can't say the name of the country or the name of the state where you are serving or even the name of your husband, Shannon, I want to challenge our listeners to pray for the work of that hospital in that country on the other side of the world and to pray that God would grant your heart's desire to see a church planted, to see His kingdom come and His will be done, and His name be hallowed in that part of the world.

So as you go, we want to send you with our prayers, with our love and we want to join our longing with yours to see God glorified in that part of the world.

Shannon: There is really nothing more valuable that people back home as supporters can give to missionaries than to pray for them. We are in such a spiritual battle"¦especially in this part of the world. The powers of darkness are just so evident in a way that I have never actually, never ever experienced before. So we are really fighting a spiritual battle and prayers are of the utmost value and importance to us. So I appreciate that.

Leslie Basham: Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been talking with a young missionary named Shannon, someone who is experiencing the joy of a life surrendered to God. To get a copy of this week's program, you can go on-line to ReviveOurHearts.com. You can also donate on-line. On this Thanksgiving Day we are so thankful that our listeners support us in this way. Nancy is here to say thank you, too.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Well, I hope that you are taking time on this special day to count your blessings and to express to the Lord and to others your gratitude for what they have meant in your life.

One of the things I am so thankful for today is the privilege that God has given us of being on the radio every weekday, 260 times a year, teaching women truths from God's Word and encouraging them with stories like the one we have heard from Shannon this week.

You know, you might be surprised at all the steps a piece of audio goes through from the time it leaves the mouth of someone like Shannon until it reaches your ears through the radio or the Internet. As you might imagine, each of those steps costs money. God is so faithful to provide what we need to our listeners.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I just want to say a great big thank you to all of you who have given so generously to support Revive Our Hearts over the last year. Your gift is being multiplied many times over each day and it's helping us to call women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. Thanks so much and a blessed Thanksgiving to you.

Leslie Basham: Radio is about more than just wires and waves. It can be about changed lives. Hear are some exciting ways God is using radio to change lives tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

Thank you, Pat and R.J., for preparing today's Revive Our Hearts for the Internet.