Our current journey is one that we are traveling down a road of uncertainty. We know that it will bring as much heartache as joy, and yet we are choosing to travel it. Through watching a family that I very greatly respect begin foster care a few years ago, my soul began to be touched. I was moved by the Holy Spirit to learn more, to become involved in some way. Neil and I have begun the certification process, which means that we are taking classes and readying our home for a home study. There are a lot of emotions and thoughts that brings with it. Growth is necessary any time you are called outside of your comfort zone, and I believe that is very Biblical. Jesus didn’t promise us comfort, in fact, he said we would have trouble in life “for his name’s sake.” I have decided that there is no better way to live my life than to answer his call: whatever that might mean.

The current foster care curriculum is called, “A Journey Home.” We attended a session recently where we talked a lot about brain chemistry and how newborn brains develop. The brain of a new baby is undeveloped except for the lower brain and the amygdala—the need/pleasure center. All a baby knows is that there is a need and they know how to cry. So the little baby cries out and when the mother or father meets their need by answering for their cries little pathways begin to develop into their frontal/upper brain. The cause and effect, cry and be soothed, becomes a routine for the child. This process happens over and over and the child learns trust; when I cry my needs are met and I feel secure. All the while, the child is growing in other areas and the brain’s capacity for learning and intelligence is also increasing. However, if the child’s cries are not answered, if the child is neglected or mistreated, instead of these pathways being developed, the brain gets a wash in dopamine (the fight, flight or flee hormone) which actually stunts growth and creates something similar to a drug addiction, causing decreased ability to reason or regulate emotions. So our speaker today actually said that for an infant, it’s important that their caregiver just continues to say “YES” to their needs. That’s key to the development of a healthy child, the development of a healthy trust relationship with a caregiver. That’s why we see failure to thrive in children with poor attachment such as orphanages and care facilities.

Interestingly, there’s a foster care movement complete with T-shirts and hats, called “KEEP SAYING YES.” (Find it here: Http://www.fosterflorida.org/store.html) It refers to the need for foster families to just keep saying yes to each new call, each new need, each child who needs a family. I couldn’t help but make the connection, but I’d like to take it one step further.

As is so often the case, we find that the Bible gives us a great example and this principle is laid out for us in our relationship with God. The Bible tells us that with God as our loving, compassionate Father, giving us the spiritual milk of His word daily, we can begin to grow into mature Christians.

1 Peter 2:2 “Like newborn infants, long for the spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”

Hebrews 5:13-14 “You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

As we mature, we develop more of a relationship with Him. We begin to know and trust Him more and, with practice, to be able to discern good and evil, right from wrong. We put away childish behaviors, and we become spiritual adults, equipped to follow him and do His will.

Scripture tells us that when we were children we thought and acted like children. 1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things”

And God says, ” If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land” Isaiah 1:19. He encourages us to “be doers of the Word and not hearers only” in James 1:22 and in Romans, ” For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (5:19). Our obedience to Him can also lead others to know about Him, and choose to follow Him.

I want to point out that our relationship with God grows when He keeps his promises to us, over and over. He promises to provide for us, to give peace and salvation. He promises through the rainbow that he will never abandon us and start over again. His word, our spiritual milk, is full of reminders of His promises and their fulfillment. But our relationship also grows when WE obey HIM, when WE say “YES” over and over again to each baby step He asks us to take toward him. I can look back over my life the last 10 years and see so many things He asked me to do and I have notoriously said NO, NO, NO, NO! complete with reasons and rationale, sometimes even a little tantrum. But y’all! He does not give up. I may have missed out on some blessings along the way by making lots of excuses but I have learned through each of those experiences that not only does He know better than I do, His plans are so much more extravagant than my imagination. Each time I eventually changed my answer to yes, I was rewarded with a twist or turn in my journey that I couldn’t have predicted a need for, that I couldn’t have more perfectly timed, and that I wouldn’t have asked for as a blessing because it wasn’t in my capacity to plan. My God weaves a story better than any Hollywood movie plot. He’s orchestrating the most beautiful melody and He lets me play a tiny part if I will just KEEP. SAYING. YES.