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Barren but Blessed – Trusting God with the Rest
Living in Unity
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Psalm 133:1
If I’m being honest, when we entered our journey of foster care, I was terrified of birth parents. I was scared to meet them, didn’t particularly want to engage with them and wasn’t thrilled with having a relationship with them. I know now that this is a horrible attitude to have and, quite frankly, I’m ashamed of my closed mind in the beginning of this journey.
Even being terrified, I opened my heart to my first son’s birth mother. I made weekly phone calls and talked about his progress. I wrote in a journal that went to his visits and even progressed to supervising his visits. I sat on the floor with her and built block towers with her and our son. I agreed to take placement of her second child, at her request. I became her mentor and for lack of a better word, friend. Granted, we didn’t have a relationship outside of our mutual love for her son, but we had a relationship.
We had such a relationship that when I received a letter in 2014 of her passing, I was devastated. I wanted to see her succeed. I wanted to tell her story, with a happy ending, to her children someday. I prayed for her and I wanted her to have the life that she deserved.
It would have been easy to make little attempt at a relationship with her. It would have been easy to be stand-offish and do the bare minimum in connecting with her, but God doesn’t call us to easy. In Psalm 133:1, we are encouraged to live together in unity because it is good and pleasant.
The reminder to live together in unity pertains to so many aspects of our life, but is incredibly pertinent to our foster and adoptive journey. The system is not designed to pit us against one another. It is not designed to encourage rifts, but rather to build bridges.
When we allow Satan to cloud our judgement and tarnish our hearts with his lies, we allow him to destroy the unity that God desires. It is far more good and pleasant when God’s people live together in unity. The system is more successful, and the children are more positively impacted, when we set our differences aside and work together.
As you go about your day today, find one way that you can bridge the gap between you and your child’s biological family. Brainstorm one way that you can help unify God’s people and be part of the good in this world.
3 Comments on “Living in Unity”
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Extra Grace Required 
Thank you for making me think today.
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Unity always begets advancement. Thanks for writing and posting.
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