It is Written: A Journey to Discovering the Father by Adria King was a HUGE blessing to me in a lot of different ways. And…I didn’t really see it coming. Adria has wisdom beyond her years because she has experienced many of the mountaintops and valleys that this broken world has to offer. My earthly father is living, but he’s never been a significant part of my life. I’ve wrestled with that off and on over the years…it truly ebbs and flows and the emotions come up when I least expect them. Adria’s writing helped me wade back into those feelings in a very helpful way while keeping my eyes on Jesus.
One of my favorite thoughts in this book was right at the end, “I am glad that there are days ahead that I haven’t figured out. It means there is still room left for me to grow. ” At a very young age, Adria has insight and perspective that many other people need a lifetime to collect.
I’d love to grab a cup of coffee with Adria and hear more of her story unfold! I highlighted several things while reading and have posted my notes below…
- I am still figuring out how to navigate life without an earthly father, but I am finding everything I thought I lost is found in Jesus. Location: 119
- In Psalm 46:1, the psalmist tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Location: 245
- “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’ lest my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:1-6). Location: 320
- My story and your story do not end with the tragedy and painful circumstances we walk through. The even better news is that with Jesus, the best is always yet to come. Oh, dear one, do not hang your head, He is still writing your story, and the “immeasurably more” is always on its way (Ephesians 3:20 NIV). C.S Lewis put it this way, “All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”1 There is always more to be written. Location: 395
- Only Jesus could take the moments of revisiting our deepest pain and make them something that nourishes us instead of making them something that stings us. Location: 554
- Brokenness is not a bad thing; it will actually benefit you. Brokenness will not belittle you. In the end, it will better you. The realization of your brokenness leads you to the realization that you are not the one who must hold all things together. Only Jesus can do that, and only Jesus was meant to do that. “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17) Location: 785
- “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Location: 1,121
- I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD (Psalm 40: 1-3). Location: 1,408
- “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Location: 1,465
- My foundation was revealed that night. I saw my absent father as an added burden to anyone that knew me or would come to know me. I had confidence in who Jesus said I was, but I was still not letting go of the belief that the loss of my father affected who I was. The enemy wants nothing more for those of us with absent fathers than to believe that we are our own kind of brand, different from the rest of the world. Location: 1,531
- in my hand, O house of Israel” (Jeremiah 18:6). What the Lord does as the potter is take you in His hands and mold you. He continuously lets His hands smooth over the places that keep resurfacing with false beliefs about who you are and what you think people see you as. Location: 1,536
- My hope is that we would be so secure in who the Lord says we are that we will know that letting people in on the story doesn’t have to feel like airing our dirty laundry. It doesn’t have to feel like we are handing them our baggage. We are handing them a part of our testimony. We are handing them a storyline that says we are overcomers. We are handing them the work of Christ in our life. When we look at it that way, we won’t dread the conversation, we will delight in it. All of this will hinge on one thing, though. Will we let go of our old thinking and welcome the new? Location: 1,558
- I am glad that there are days ahead that I haven’t figured out. It means there is still room left for me to grow. Location: 1,832