There was this silence in my head as I focused on helping Joshua to transition to a new school, trying to find therapy closer (don't you just love the gas prices) as well as transitioning as a family to a new area.
Today God began to move in my heart and thus through my fingers. This entry may be more of a moment of therapy for me in journaling it than a challenge that usually comes from my fingertips, yet this is what God wanted me to share with you....with that typed....
IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HARD....
I used to loathe it when people would say, “It takes a special person to have a special child.” Or this one, “God gives special kids to special parents.”
I know people mean well, and that people really don’t know what to say when they find out your child has an illness or disability and all they can usually come up with is the universal quotes listed above. Those statements used to seem like “platitudes", a cliché, yet I have come to see and wear them with humble honor.
In the movie, League of Their Own, Tom Hanks who plays the coach of the Peaches makes an eye opening statement. Granted, it’s about baseball, yet I can truly see how it relates to being a parent of a child with a disability:
It’s supposed to be hard.
If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it.
Hard is what makes it great.
Our life relates whole heartedly to his statement….and it truly comes down to perspective. What makes our life on the spectrum of Autism so great is that we reap in all the joys of our son’s victories. When people say he cannot, this little guy does something incredible that defeats all the obstacles that are set before him.
What makes it great is that we have learned more about life, acceptance, and being thankful for everything through our 7 year old son who lives daily with Autism and coping with those who don’t get it. I stand humbled and in awe as he thanks Jesus daily for his Autism…with no pause or wavering in his voice.
What makes it great is that God entrusted him to us to care for, raise, build up, encourage and share with him about the saving grace of Jesus, and that Jesus loves him…just for him.
I have had people come up to me and say, “I could never do that…what you are doing.” (Yet, one never knows what they can or cannot do until it is there before them.) Again, it comes down to perspective.
It’s true…it’s hard. None of us were ever promised that life or that parenting for that matter would be easy. For crying in the weeds…childbirth was not easy. If it were men would give birth just so they could eat all they wanted and gain a gut….wait, some already do that.
To say Hard is what makes it great….
I would have to agree. There days where it is really difficult, yet we have learned that no matter what the circumstances….they don’t define who we are as parents, or who our son is.
To say Hard is what makes it great in no way makes us martyrs.
Nah, honestly…I am proud and humbled to be Joshua’s mommy. A boy who loves Jesus, and has a tender heart for those who are hurting. Who will cheer someone who is in the midst of therapy to encourage them to continue and will rejoice with them when they finish. A boy who will stop and pray if he hears an ambulance siren, and will ask his sister, “How did you sleep?” and even is willing to sit in her room to “protect her from bad dreams so she can sleep.” A boy, who still enters his own world, becomes overwhelmed, has meltdowns, yet will work so hard to learn new things and loves an adventure. A boy who has Autism, and accepts that this is how Jesus made him.
Even though our move two months ago has been very difficult for Joshua ….
Hard is what makes it great…
As he sits and quotes his life verse,
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3
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