Zoom Out, Friends, and Find the Joy

I often joke to my husband that, zoomed in, our day to day life sucks. It’s—on the best of days—diapers & chaos & mess, 8 people’s schedules & personalities & noise, and—on the worst of days—trauma & behaviors & deep loss, 8 people touched, in very different ways, by the wounds of foster care.

Yeah, of course, there are a million moments of happy. But for me, the real joy—the kind that keeps you going—isn’t found in these small & sweet times. For me, it’s found by zooming out, seeing the big picture, re-focusing on the purpose & re-orienting to the why.

Because, hard as it may be, this life is exactly what I want to be doing. The day to day, the part that feels most real, it’s actually light & momentary & temporary, like grass that springs in the morning and withers by night.

But zoomed out, I see the glory. I see that foster care, adoption, parenting, missional work, they are eternal. They are worth spending up your life on. They’re worth living in the hard now for what will truly matter forever.

Zoom out, friends, and find the joy.
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(2 Corin. 4:18, Psalm 103:15-16, Romans 8:18)