Every One Needs One

March 1st, 2013 by sistersi

Until recently, I didn’t give much thought to the trauma and emotional wreckage that is on the head of children that are separated from their parents. It doesn’t matter whether they are taken away or abandoned. If you have ever experienced a child go through such deep emotional pain that when they open their mouths to sob, no sound comes out, you will not easily cast off the plight of such children. You can hug them and try to console them, but you are strangers to them and they will still beg you to tell them where their mother or father is and when are they coming to get them.

It doesn’t matter that you live in a palace with all its finery and their parents live in a hovel, dining on ramen noodles night after night. We are made to fit with our parents. That being said, there are some parents that are not fit, not capable or caring for their own children, or just don’t want their children, whether that be for the short term or long term. The foster or adoptive parents who rescue these children are true heroes and should be applauded. I just wish there were more of them.

Faithbridge Foster Care, is a Christ-centered program (www.faithbridgefostercare.org) that mobilizes the churches to create a community of care that not only raises up foster parents but surrounds them with support. Faithbridge reports that if every church in America were to take one foster child…not one per family in the church, but just one per church, there would be no foster need for a state run foster care system.

So, where are you churches and people of God? Where are the Pharaoh’s Daughters of this age? In a time of racial prejudice and injustice, Pharaoh’s daughter, a royal Egyptian, had great courage—not only did she save Moses’ life (a Hebrew child whom her father said should be killed), she accepted him as her own child. (See Exodus 2:5–10). Like Pharaoh’s daughter, we don’t have to be named. Please learn more about foster care and adoption and pray about whether you are called to this precious station. Even if you are not, all of us are called to have compassion for the smallest and weakest, the poor, the infirmed, and the old.

It doesn’t matter who you are or your station in life. If you have some, share it. If you can care for one, reach out and cover them. If a child has no one to love them, you be that one. The world was changed by one man. We can follow his example and change, or perhaps save the life of another.

Let 2013 be your year to take your eyes and efforts off of yourself and put them on someone else. This year, go further than just dropping a coin in a poor man’s cup. Make a commitment to help that man up onto his feet. Everyone needs someone to make a difference in their lives and everyone needs to make a difference in someone else’s life.

Michele Clark Jenkins

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