As I drove my family home without the treat I'd been looking forward to I couldn't help but wallow in frustration, disappointment and anger. I felt like I was being held prisoner by my special son's personality quirks and that these quirks were causing me to punish everyone in the family. Emotions I never expected to have reared their ugly head, all chorusing around the question "what did I do to deserve this?"
My sweet sister in Christ, and fellow special needs Mama, Amber pointed me to this beautiful article she wrote reminding me the truth that I am not just parenting a special needs child, but in doing so I'm serving and worshiping Christ.
So I'm rewriting my thought pattern. Instead of feeling cheated by the new limitations some days might bring, I'm going to call them guidelines, invitations perhaps. Opportunities to exchange self indulgence for service and reflection. Isn't that so much more beautiful and easy to swallow?
Do you have limitations that you'd like to exchange for invitations? We'd love to hear about them.
3 comments:
What a beautiful way of looking at it. Our entire family has pretty much changed our direction in life, but we are all in it together and even though I am scared I know God has a plan and I need to trust him.
We to brought a son home from Eastern Europe in November 2011, only ours came from Ukraine and was 5 years old. We too thought we were parenting pros since we already had 3 bio kids and had previously adopted Slava's 3 older siblings 5 years before. Only this little guy was 10x harder than bringing home 3 kids at once! Slava has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorder. He too has difficulty self regulating. But God is faithful, and when He calls - He equips!
Love this! Thank you for this reminder today. (I'm reading on a Monday morning...why are Mondays so hard...?)
Rachel M (From(in)cluded)
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