Why did we say yes to foster care?
Here's the simple answer to a not so simple question:
We said "Yes!" because He said "YES!"
I mentioned in the previous post the condition of my heart being revealed hard and fast... it's ugly. As filthy and murky as can be.
So, question... have you ever found yourself thinking you've learned it all, not much growing left to do, conquered your toughest sins...? I've heard others say it and I've felt it myself, even when I didn't realize it... the belief that we've overcome our greatest sins and the only thing we need to work on is the small stuff... I gossip here and there, sometimes I worry a little, I was short with my husband the other day, I should be a little more patient with the kids...
Oh, how deeply sinful to have even considered this... The small stuff?? Is the gossip on a different level than the selfish desire for my own happiness over other's? Is worrying here and there any better than the intense distrust in the Savior's plan for my family and our foster son's family? Is the impatience less to my God than the deeply rooted hatefulness that I have begun to recognize in myself as I have grown to love the children and teenagers in foster care over the last several years? Have any of us really ever been 'over' the need for growth and the cleansing of our hearts??
This filthy, murky heart... How could anyone love it? How could anyone desire it? How could anyone sacrifice Himself in order to make this heart His own?
I don't know how, I don't know why... I know that when this girl with her ugly heart was an orphan of this world, He said, "YES!"
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:6-8
At just the right time, while I was still a sinner, AM still a sinner.
Christ died for ME!
He said yes! He changed everything! My status, my family, my future. He promised me His own inheritance, and an eternal home with HIM! (See Adoption: An Easter Story for teaching on these specific topics)
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"
1 John 3:1a
Children of God. No. Longer. Orphans.
And what does He ask of us?
To live a life of gratitude, to walk in His footsteps (1 John 2:6)... pick up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23&24). How could we say no when He prompted our hearts to care for these children in the foster care system?
He stepped in when our futures were hopeless. We must step in for these, His, children and their families when their own futures are uncertain at best.
We MUST be willing to hurt, to cry, to sacrifice ourselves for the least of these and pray for victory in the lives of all involved.
And believe me, I cry. I just finished wiping my messy, ugly tears a minute ago...
But after I cry and after the fear in my frightened heart subsides, I have to smile. I know this pain means beauty, celebration for a mama who has hurt far worse than me.
Victory, friends. Has there ever been a greater victory than the cross? The moment we became children of the most high God?
Never.
The moment this baby is united forever with his mama and daddy and they begin a new and beautiful life together... That will be a glimpse of the victory we were given on the cross, a glimpse that will grow my gratitude and my understanding of my own reunification with my Father, a glimpse that will leave me changed. Forever.
We must choose victory. He chose it for us and we must choose it for these families in the foster care system.
We said "Yes" because He said "Yes," friends.
Has the Lord prompted your heart to care for His children? Will you pray about saying "Yes" to His call?
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.
Ephesians 1:3-8
**This post is part of a series of posts aiming to answer the question, "Why did you choose foster care?" If any of these words or these posts spark an interest in your heart to consider foster parenting, please contact me or visit crossroadsnola.org/foster-care for information about fostering in the St. Tammany Parish and New Orleans area.**
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