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Should You Become a Foster Parent in 2022?

By January 25, 2022January 26th, 2022Blog

What are your goals for this year?

At the start of every year, many of us set goals with every intention of checking off each resolution as we complete it. We come up with the ideal plan for personal success.

I will feel so awesome about myself when I have the best body, the most money, and the nicest things!

Maybe your resolutions even involve serving others or giving back to the community. Maybe you set goals to help you grow closer to Jesus — committing to reading the Bible or praying. These are great resolutions and good things.

For some of us though, there will be a question mark after a couple of items on our resolution list, or maybe, you’re too scared to write them down, but deep down, you know you want to: Foster care? Adoption?

Don’t get me wrong here. These are big items to be on the list! It’s one thing to eat an apple a day; it’s a totally different thing to love and care for a child in need.

What I don’t want us to do is to put those question marks on our lists year after year, waiting for the perfect time to foster or adopt, out of fear.

It’s easy to get caught up in waiting and miss out on something greater that God wants for us.

We want to wait to foster until our kids are older, or we have more money in the bank, or life has slowed down a bit from this crazy pace we’re maintaining. Or, maybe your family has some good stuff going right now. Why mess with a good thing?

John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, wrote in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Too often, we think fear equals bad. If I’m scared, I should stop. But if we pause and consider why we’re afraid, the fear that stops us can point to ways God wants to shape us.

When we push through our fears, we discover new aspects of God’s character. As a result, we love Him more. We trust Him more. Confidence increases, and fear decreases. That’s what John wants for us when he talks about being made perfect in love.

We begin to think and choose differently because we’re no longer making decisions out of fear of what could happen.

Listening to God’s Voice

In a recent podcast episode, we heard the truth that if God is calling you to something, you can do it!

This is true for foster care and adoption as well.

This isn’t something God puts in our heart just to leave us on our own when we actually take Him up on it. It’s exactly the opposite!

It’s rare for God to give us a giant, lavish, undoubtedly clear sign of a direction He’s asking us to take. What does He do instead? He repeatedly whispers to our heart. Just a soft pull, a gentle invitation, a consistent curiosity.

I wonder if you’ve experienced that whisper.

It’s so easy to explain this away as something that “doesn’t make sense,” or just a “silly feeling,” but today I want to encourage you to lean into that whisper rather than pull away from it.

(Even if that whisper is to get involved with the foster care community in another way, lean into it and listen closely to the invitation God is giving you into something special.)

It all starts with a yes.

I’ve written about this before, but it all starts with a yes. A decision to say, “Yes, God, I’ll trust your promise rather than give in to my fear.”

Waiting until “the stars align,” and we feel secure and ready to take a leap of faith, isn’t actually a leap of faith at all.

The perfect time to foster or adopt isn’t ever going to come. You’re never going to feel ready. You’re never going to have enough money. You’re never going to have a big enough house. You’re never going to be strong enough. (Spoiler alert: Jesus is.)

So, if you’ve been waiting for the perfect time, stop. You’ll be waiting forever. This year, let’s change those question marks to periods, and make 2022 the year you say no to fear and take a leap of faith to finally foster or adopt.

Mitch Nelson

Whether he is drinking coffee or coming up with new ideas, Mitch is always looking for new ways TFI can grow. He is very involved at his church, Compass Church, and has led in both creative and pastoral ministries over the last several years. He and his wife Becky were married in April of 2018, and together they enjoy camping, live music, black coffee, and good books.

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