Masked - My Jesus Mask This has been a really rough year in so many ways. This was the year of pandemics, riots, shutdowns and crazy elections... and yet, God has not changed. “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” Mal. 3:6 Our first reaction when something scary and fearful arises, is to go into self-protection mode and try to find all the answers so that we can feel secure. Our world (especially on social media) was immediately inundated with speculation, assumption and a general rush to be the one with all the answers or to find a way to save everyone from misinformation and misfortune. The fear and paralysis that took Luke and I down in the first few weeks home from work, was so out of the ordinary that we began to plan and work to preserve our mental, physical and spiritual health as quickly as we could. The choices that God led us into were so difficult and tended to take us on a trajectory that had
SAFE PLACES I’ve been thinking a lot about the theme of “A Safe Place” the last few weeks. With the time we spent in Foster Care, the theme of safe places was very prevalent. It was all over in our training materials, in our classes and in our everyday experiences with the children we were charged to guard, protect and nurture. I was raised and have grown with the theme of God being our Haven of Rest, The Lord is my Shepherd, His mercies are new every morning, He hides me under HIs wing, My God is my refuge and strength...and yet I was not prepared for the depth of my need for a safe place for ME while I was being a safe place for everyone else. I raced through every day, fearing the worst, tensing at the hint of struggle….really deep, dark struggle...knowing the information I needed to move forward but often forgetting my own Safe Place. You see, when a child of trauma enters a safe place...feels loved...cared for...able to release tension….then all of that baggage gets dropp