How do we....

This week, my work with my clients has really been speaking to me. I have two client's who have awful home lives--they are full of pain and neglect and verbal abuse. Their parents do not and will not care to change, and the teenagers are stuck with parents who call them names, do not give them money, will not let them have jobs because it affects their SSI check, and do not really give a crap if they thrive. This has really caused me and my coworker to examine our approach, we have decided that since the environment in which they live will most likely not change or transform (all though we may hope for that), we are working on building skills, including self-esteem and self-image that will last beyond their home contexts and is not dependent upon them. Building such self-image is vital to maturity and thriving because it means that they can both last (emotionally) in their crappy families and it means that they can later last in other situations (though we hope they will not voluntarily submit themselves to them).

I think it is this lasting, foundational self-concept is something that God is challenging in me as well. To build a self-concept and a faith not dependent on how much my neighbors engage with me or my roomates like me, or my community is there for me, is really a powerful lesson and a vital part of my faith and relationship with God. I think part of the ways God is bringing about this foundational understanding is by bringing up conflict again and again to facilitate an understanding that God is my confidant, my protector and my redeemer and conflict will exist within a community and my hope in God, His love for me, and His provision will not be rocked.