In the months leading up to our first Together for Good hosting, I prepared myself in every possible way for the worst. I imagined impossible-to-manage behaviors. I imagined chaos. I imagined interrupted routines and unpredictability for our own children. I imagined myself—at my sleep-deprived WORST—awake at 3 a.m. with someone else’s hysterical child. I was mentally prepared for anything and everything bad to happen. What I wasn’t prepared for was for NOTHING bad to happen. I wasn’t prepared for a sweet, well-adjusted baby boy to warm up to our whole family quickly. I wasn’t prepared for our own children to share their home, their toys, the attention of their parents, with such natural grace and love. I wasn’t prepared for him to eat well, sleep well and be so crazy easy-to-love.
The weekend wasn’t perfect. There were some hiccups (I mean, I DO have a two-year-old ). BUT…there was so much more good than bad. There was more easy than hard. There was more joy than pain. God is good and He is leading the mission of this amazing work. He will equip our family (and yours) for this work, and He will give us what we can handle each time we say “yes” to love a family who is stuck in a difficult place. As with everything in life, the trick will be to keep Him at the heart of it. To prayerfully consider each “opportunity for good”; to pray to be unselfish with our time, our resources, our homes, and our family. To be prepared for a little messiness but to also expect that, with it, HE can surprise us with so much good!
