The Heart Muscle

I have recently started an exercise program, and I am about 3 weeks into this new commitment.  I became a little over confident and pushed too hard last week and pulled a muscle.  The weekend was spent resting and icing the sore spot and then it was time to try it again.  I was extremely apprehensive.  I didn’t want to get hurt again.  I wasn’t certain that I could trust the muscle to perform the way I wanted.  The way I needed.

It occurred to me that the children who come into our care may feel some of this same apprehension as their “heart” muscle has been wounded by their past and the hard places where they have been.   Are they afraid to trust that muscle again?  Do they worry that it won’t hold up?  That it might hurt worse than before?  That it won’t provide what they need?

After rest and recovery I did my work out yesterday, tentatively at first.  I started slow. The muscle worked.  It didn’t hurt.  I was careful but I was able to trust it.   Maybe tomorrow I will be able to trust it to go just a little further and work a little harder.  This is my prayer for our children: that as they heal and rest and recover that they will be able to allow their “heart” muscle to trust a little more and go a little deeper in their relationships with their foster, adoptive and birth parents.

Lynn Beckett, International Social Worker