The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: IT'S CHILD'S PLAY (06/06/19)
When I was a young girl, we often sat back in the cry room at church because my baby sister wasn’t too fond of being left in the nursery. A couple sat back there every Sunday with their adult son. I tried my best to ignore the son, to keep my eyes averted. I thought of how embarrassed the parents must feel watching their forty-something son acting like a child— laughing inappropriately loud and asking the same questions over and over. When the singing began he would leap up, joyously clapping and belting out unintelligible words. Unintelligible, with one exception: Jesus. Unfathomably, he could pronounce the name Jesus. I never saw his parents make any effort to make him sit down or be quiet. I felt sick for them. I thought having a child like him might be one of the worst things that could happen to a person.

Today, as I sit back in that samecry room with my own man-child, I think what I wouldn't give to see joy on my son’s face, to see him leap up and loudly belt out Jesus' name.

What if I’d been told back then, that in a little more than thirty years, I would give birth to my own special needs child? A child whose impairments would make those of the man-child from my childhood seem mild in comparison?

I would have said I wouldn’t be able to stand it. I would have begged to be spared. I would have thought having no children at all would be preferable (even though being a wife and mother was all I ever wanted to be).

Of course, everyone wants a perfect child and is never fully prepared for the news that their child is less than perfect. But for me, really, truly believing that God IS sovereign has been my lifeline. My husband and I both believe Brett is a miracle. Parenting Brett has changed our hearts and minds in ways we could never have imagined.

I’m a flight attendant and on a recent flight we had about a dozen special needs passengers on board. One fifty-ish man was particularly thrilled to be on an airplane. He excitedly grasped my hand and asked me how I was. Pre-Brett I would have been uncomfortable, not wanting him to touch me and doing my level best not to make eye contact. But that day I was filled with genuine affection for him. His uninhibited joy and friendliness was contagious. I didn't even mind that he asked me twenty times if we were almost to Detroit. When one of the women asked me for a seat belt extension for her friend, she made it seem like a good thing. She was proud of her friend for managing to grow big enough to need an extension. Good job!

Having Brett has had the same effect on my husband, Bob. He’s a car salesman and one day one of his customers mentioned that his wife was waiting in the the car with their adult, mentally impaired daughter.

“Don’t make them wait in the car, bring them in!”

His customer reluctantly agreed, and beckoned them in. The daughter was non-verbal, just sat in a nearby chair letting out a few happy whoops now and then.

Bob said when he looked over at her he was overwhelmed with love for her and impulsively told her parents that he loved them. They sat in stunned silence...who expects their car salesman to tell them he loves them?

After they signed all the paperwork and left, the man returned to the showroom, hugged Bob and told him he loved him too.

I love that story. I love that through loving and caring for Brett, God has changed us...our perspective and our hearts. I love seeing that what these special people may lack in ability, God has compensated for with an abundance of joy.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 557 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Barbara Culler 
06/14/19
I loved your story! My story this week was of similar topic , but I was not related to the MC. God's Forever children- I love that!
Terry R A Eissfeldt 
06/14/19
Child like faith - uninhibited or just sitting and breathing it in....lovely story.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
06/17/19
This brought tears to my eyes. It's truly a gift that God doesn't show us our futures. We'd be terrified while he knows what gifts he gives us to handle those scary futures. I can't help but think of the girl who used to babysit my kids. When she found out her daughter was going to be born with serious limitations, it was a sad day. Her father refused her to acknowledge, saying inappropriate things. What a joy that little girl became to so many. It wasn't easy for her mother for sure. She lost her a few years ago, and would relive every hard day to have her daughter back here with her again. She knows she'll see her in heaven though. That little girl showed us Jesus' love in so many ways. I'd guess Brett does the same in his own way. Thanks for sharing a bit of him with me.
Donald Standeford
06/19/19
This is a beautiful but scary reality. We never know what waits for us around each corner. It must be a difficult thing to handle.

Myself, I had many developmental problems and had to depend on God every step of the way into adulthood. I prayed for wisdom because all my decisions seemed wrong, my growth, emotionally and developmentally stunted.

I think of David Ring when I read this. I also remember that though it must be tough wish your child could be normal, what is normal? We are all challenged.

I think it much worse if our child is normal, yet his or her heart is broken and denies Christ and searches the world for meaning and comes up with worldly things, Satan and evil as the solution.

We cannot choose what is around the next corner, but we can be content in the fact that God let's the challenges come to us and we learn from them.