The day we picked up our foster children, I realized this was not at all like the training. Sure, I’d finished the courses, gone through the inspections – but when those two living, breathing children came home with us, my heart was not fully equipped to handle it. I texted and emailed my case worker every detail, wanting to make sure I was doing everything right. I expressed concern that certain behaviors meant they had experienced certain negative things in the past, and I also shared positives, good things I saw in the children, promising behaviors and things that worked well. Finally I decided I should type up a full weekly report. It felt so strange to care for children when I’d never met their parents, didn’t have a checklist from parents that would let me know their bedtime routine, favorite stories, food allergies, likes and dislikes… I wanted the reassurance of knowing someone else shared responsibility over these children’s lives too, not just me and my husband. But the case worker said no, don’t send her a weekly report.
Lately I’ve been thinking, what if I had to send God a weekly report of my interactions with my own children – how well I have served them, listened to them without distraction, put them before my work (while still getting work done), corrected them in love when necessary, encouraged them, shown them mercy, modeled a selfless life of giving, led by example. Of course, God’s with us every moment so He already knows, but if I saw it in written form at the end of each week, in black and white, would I be pleased? Would God? Yet too often I forget that my children are ultimately His, as if they are on loan to me for a short while. Lord, help me honor You in every little way I live in front of my children this week and each week… because I know they are watching, and I want to honor You.
Seeing Christ in Daily Life 