The Gritty Gospel with Christy Young | Fostering Drives Me to the Gospel Daily

Fostering kids - like parenting generally - has been incredibly humbling and such an incredible sanctifying tool the Lord is using to refine me.

The Lord is ever-teaching me that I do not always know what's best (even though I may think I do), that I do not know what His good and perfect will aims to accomplish and that it's not my job to be preoccupied with fostering outcomes (Will the kids in my care be reunified with bio mom and dad? What will their lives look like one year down the road? Five years?).

The Lord has used and is ever using fostering as a means to daily humble me and convict me of my pride and selfishness. As we work with difficult bio parents, daily care for children that are not our own, strive to obtain our yearly foster training hours, meet monthly with case managers and attend hearings - the whole system can feel overwhelming. And then when you see a bio mom or dad making compromising choices which have and are substantially impacting their children, it's really hard not to make judgment calls about the best case scenario for kids in your care. I'm guilty of it.

And the Lord is actively teaching, refining and humbling me - reminding me that I am not God. That my ways are not His ways, and that I do not always know what's best for the kids in my care. And that worrying about outcomes for the children in my home is not my burden or responsibility (except for ever-advocating for them). Jesus is teaching me to leave all the heavy lifting to Him, and for me to rest in doing the work He has set before me - to daily love and care for His children. And stretch to love and encourage difficult bio parents along the way. He's daily reminding me that every single child in my care - bio, adopted or foster - is HIS first and foremost, and that His will will be done for each and every one of them. I am humbly reminded that I don't need to be concerned with outcomes.

My job is to work in the daily - loving, caring for, teaching and discipling all the kids in my house, and aiming to love, support and encourage biological parents of the foster kids in my home. The Lord is reminding me that my only real job is to live out the gospel daily with all of those in my home and those the Lord places in my path. My job is to be an advocate for the foster children in my care, to pray for them, their parents and their hearts, speak up when I need to advocate for a child, and then to leave all that I have little to no control over at the Lord's feet.

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