The Tapestry Team sat on a Zoom call in late May, brainstorming about the theme for the 2021 Tapestry Conference. We threw around several ideas, but when someone suggested the idea of “delighting in the Lord,” no one opposed it. We knew that foster, adoptive, and kinship families needed to be reminded of the goodness of God and his redemptive work in their families. They needed to know that God delights in them and in their kids. It didn’t take much discussion. “Delight” became our 2021 Tapestry Conference Theme, and we never second-guessed it.

Foster, adoptive, and kinship families face unique obstacles as their children heal from their past trauma. When we are facing these challenging behaviors, moods, and trauma responses, it can become very easy to stop delighting in the Lord, trusting Him, and committing everything we do to Him. Instead of turning to Him and delighting in Him, we isolate ourselves, resort to complaining, or blame our situation for our negative attitude.

But what would happen if we stopped delighting in ourselves and our own desires, and instead delighted in the Lord and His desires? Psalm 37 is clear: when we delight in the Lord, He gives us the desire of our hearts. And when we are delighting in Him, His desires become our desires. And when His desires become our desires, we will desire our children’s genuine healing instead of desiring perceived “better” behaviors. We will learn how to parent better instead of giving up because it’s too overwhelming. When we take delight in God, we will take delight in our children.

Our culture’s tendency is to refer to children as annoying and needy. Parents make it seem like parenting is too difficult and they withdraw from their responsibility instead of finding the joy and delight in parenting. But if children are our “gift” and “reward,” as it states in Psalm 127:3, then we should not just love them and direct them on the right path, but we should also love spending time with them. Children should be our delight, not our burden.

But when we are in the trenches, dealing with difficult behaviors and overwhelming situations every single day, how can we possibly delight in the Lord? It sometimes feels impossible to enjoy Him in these moments. And it feels even more impossible to delight in our children.

So, how do we follow His command to take delight in the Lord? We remember this important truth: God first delights in us. Our children are precious to us, even in their most difficult moments. And in the same way, we are precious to God, even in our most difficult moments. When we remember His grand love for us, that delight spills over into our relationship with Him and in our relationship with our children.

God delights in us. We delight in Him. And then, we can delight in our precious children, our good gifts from our Heavenly Father.

1 John 4:19 – We love each other because he loved us first.

Zephaniah 3:17 – For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

Psalm 127:3 – Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.