word of God spoke…

well, our retreat this past weekend couldn’t have come at a better time. by the time crissie and i get our next days off (nov. 17-20), we’ll have worked 23 straight days! we came back refreshed and renewed, though, and it was an amazing time in an awesome place. while we enjoyed everything about the weekend, God revealed something to me in our one and only adult session (all the other worship/bible study times we shared with the kids). for the 3 years we’ve been going on this retreat, i’ve been a vocal proponent of the houseparents being in the worship and bible study times with the kids rather than having our own small group times, so it was really refreshing (and a bit humbling) that God used my least-liked time slot to speak to me.

harry black, current president of the arkansas baptist state convention and former abchomes board member led the session, and his focus was on “listening to God.” he introduced us to a method called the “lectio divina” which is a slow, contemplative praying of scripture (which I’m also not going to get into the details of. Check it out at this website). where God spoke to me was in the scripture that mr. black chose for us in this exercise. normally the individual chooses his own scripture passage to pray, but for the sake of our limited time, he chose this one for us…

isaiah 61:1-3a:
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

i got really convicted by this because i often lose sight of the calling I’ve been given. i often get so wrapped up in the rules and regulations and in issuing consequences for infractions, that i fail to stay focused on the fact that i've been annointed by God to minister to not just the kids, but every person i come in contact with. my emphasis always seems to gravitate toward enforcement of rules, keeping the cottage clean and neat, paperwork, etc, etc, and while all that is part of the total package, it isnt the ultimate goal. our mission statement for the children’s home is "to develop competent, caring, Christian adults." so while enforcing rules and disciplining is part of developing competent adults, it seems (in my case at least) to get more attention than the "caring, Christian" part, and that's an out-of-balance approach, especially in light of what these verses say.

i think when i was houseparenting young girls, i became pretty good at binding up the brokenhearted, and bestowing the oil of gladness and a crown of beauty. but I often fall short in the other areas this passage talks about, especially living with teenage boys now, which disappoints me as a houseparent and as a Christian, as i've tended to neglect the most important things. however, my disappointment in my shortcomings also serves as my motivation to do things differently, and do them better.

it’s my steadfast belief that the over-arching precept for every Christian should be Christ’s admonition to His disciples in matthew 6:33… “but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” If my main pursuit is for my boys to be obedient, I will fail. If my main objective is to have straight A students, I will fail. If my main goal is to have a spotless cottage, I will fail. But if I seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God, He has promised me that He will accomplish the rest.