As we sat down for devotional this morning, we realized that we might need a new conference table to fit all 14 of us comfortably. The Lord has blessed us with two new case managers and several more families and placements over the summer. We rejoice in the work the Lord has called us to do, and we ask Him to continue to expand His kingdom in San Antonio through the children we serve…
As we sat around the conference room this morning, our devotional leader asked us to shout out words we thought of when he said the word “conflict.” We immediately responded with words such as “anger,” “fighting,” and “shouting”; almost all the words we threw out were negative. To us, conflict is a frightening and frustrating problem that we dread addressing and go out of our way to prevent at all costs. We are terrified of conflict.
Take a moment and picture a desert. Think of the sand, the rocks, the hazy heat on the horizon. As you paint your mental picture, do you see anything living or green? Maybe you see a lizard or a little withered plant, but probably nothing like a lush forest or grassy plain full of animals and signs of life…
This morning, we gathered around the conference table and gave thanks for the families who continue to step forward and say yes to fostering and adopting. We praised the Lord for providing safe, loving homes for children rescued from trauma, and we prayed fiercely that God would bring to light each and every fact in these children’s cases…
“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, ‘Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.’” Jonah 4:1-2, NIV
When one of our staff members was a little girl, she accepted Jesus as her savior, and a few months later she was baptized in front of her church congregation. Before baptizing her, the pastor asked the little girl if she had experienced any change in her life since accepting Christ. She replied very matter-a-factly that since being saved she had been a lot nicer to her sisters...
Choosing social work as a career field often means giving up other things such as the concept of weekends off or evenings without work phone calls. Choosing to be a foster parent comes with the same sort of mindset. Date nights now revolve around who is available for respite and family pictures can no longer be posted on Facebook for the whole world to see. Life is just different when you get involved in foster care...
We have come into a season of being flooded with new willing families, staff members, and community/church partners. This is a season of huge growth for us and we want to be good stewards of what God is clearly leading us into. We believe that just as God has sent us more families, He will send us the aid we need to support our families and the children placed in their homes. Our Heavenly Father is a provider who lavishes His provision on us—His children—He invites us to simply come as we are and ask for what we need.
We took a break from the blog for the past two weeks because of the open house and then catching up after the open house, but we are back on a regular blog schedule! Today’s devotional was a great reminder for us as an agency that God is 100% for us and no one and nothing can stop His good purpose for us...
