By: Heather McAnear, LBSW, Education Supervisor
Finding families for children…not children for families. It seems like a subtle difference but it certainly is an important one. At Generations Adoptions, the Lord has called us to keep our focus on the needs of children and birthmothers while lovingly serving the families that He brings to us. God shows his care and attention to the orphaned child in Psalm 68:6, “God sets the lonely in families…” His desire is for every lonely child to be placed into a family that will love, support, and protect them and that is also our desire at Generations.
Finding families for children…
When we focus on the child, we become relentless advocates. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are the voice for the voiceless. Speaking out hope for the hopeless. We don’t look at a child and think, “no one will adopt them” and move on. When God lights our hearts on fire for the lonely, we will relentlessly fight until every child has a home. A family. A father to teach them, a mother to comfort them, a sibling to play with.
…not children for families.
When our focus slips from the child, that child is forgotten. Only the cutest, the sweetest, the most loveable have the opportunity to be blessed by adoption and that is not the heart of the Father. Our Abba Father sees every child and has a plan for their lives. A plan to prosper them and not to harm them. A plan for a hope and a future. There is no child truly left behind.
When our focus slips from the child, then it can become about our timeline, our emotions, and our fears and children are left to the side. Many families get involved in adoption out of a desire to meet a need and we believe God has a strong calling on those families to adopt. When the process becomes long and tiresome, adoptive families should remain focused on what God has said by calling them to adoption. During these times our trust in the Lord can wane and thoughts of, “Did God really say…” and “I’m going to make this happen” can begin to creep in. Our prayer is that the adoption process does not discourage families; allowing fear, doubt, and control to take over changing their focus from the needs of children. We pray that your eyes can remain fixed on Jesus.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” (James 1:27)
Our prayer is that all families and individuals remain open to being the solution to the orphan crisis. We invite you to relentlessly advocate for all children to be placed into a family. This may be done by becoming an adoptive family to a child in need, supporting another adopting family financially, or in caring for their child and family when they come home. Perhaps this means going on a mission trip to care for orphans or organizing your church to care for orphans here in the U.S. or across the world. We believe God has chosen each of us to be an instrument to meet the needs of the hearts of children across the globe and invite you to join us in Providing Hope for Future Generations.