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…

When you serve children in foster care in any capacity—foster parent, case worker, CASA, case manager—you pour out continuously. You expend all your energy, emotions, and time fighting for justice and healing for the children in your care…

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.

“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...