Life in the Lord as a Special Needs Mom
Sunday felt incredibly different for me, but for some of my dear friends it felt familiar. For many Special Needs families it may have felt like a fairly normal Sunday —home alone, behind a screen, looking in from the “socially distant” outside.
A small gasp came from my 8 year old Autistic son who fights the urge to elope occasionally. Having succumbed to it a handful of times, each in moments of overwhelming feelings, he understood why Jacob was fleeing his brother Esau….FEAR.
Take a minute to clothe yourself in this daily frame of mind. Let your heart feel loneliness, isolation, and the quiet beckoning to be meaningfully involved in the church. Christian Special Needs parents are struggling to come to church.
As a Music Minister’s wife and mother of a child with special needs, I have a passion and calling to see the church fully engage Special Needs families. I hope this list will encourage Pastors who are already doing many of these things, and also open dialogue with Pastors who desire to specifically reach Special Needs families!
I paused trying to decide what to say, but the silence gave him the opportunity to provide greater clarity. Looking uncharacteristically in my eyes he said, “I don’t love you.”
His proposal was not just fulfilled with an unexpected scene, it became an invitation to join him on whatever path the Lord would guide us down together.
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Creating a meaningful new Christmas tradition does not require more money, more time, and more effort. In this modern day of boredom and apathy despite every technology and form of entertainment at our fingertips, let us set it all aside and come away to meet with Jesus to together anticipate the single most glorious birth in the history of all creation.
While I am able to appreciate some of the warm-fuzzies and grandeur that make up this special season, it is filled with transitions, heightened crowds, and an abundance of purely social opportunities ripe for a few meltdowns – kids and parents alike!
This is the one ministry I know of, where the struggle will teach us to more deeply identify with those we serve.
