Top 1o Things I am Thankful for this Week
1. a husband who serves (and surfs)
2. a decisive husband
3. a husband who seeks righteousness
4. children who are set apart
5. children who embrace their destiny
6. children who tell me they love me, often
7. friends who hold me accountable
8. friends who pray aloud, face down, and without ceasing
9. friends who text me Scripture
10. Eugene Petersen's translation of The Message
11. a God who reveals Himself to me specifically through rain, numbers, and newspaper headlines
12. a God who makes my enemies a footstool for my feet
Oh, that's twelve.
Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I've got—
Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation.
God's works are so great, worth
A lifetime of study—endless enjoyment! Psalm 111:1
I am thankful to have found this blog and plan to subscribe to it...if I ever figure out how to negotiate the world of blogging! (It's not that I am not computer literate; I email, google, use Amazon, and HAD a facebook account which I deactivated last week. I want to start a blog and need to learn how they specifically work. But I digress.)
ReplyDeleteI also was looking for those who shared my struggles as a member of a family where autism is a factor. I wandered into one discussion that (unbeknownst to me) was reserved for those who DON'T want children, EVER. There was a long thread of comments referring to those with disabilities in extremely disrespectful terms, some of which I'd never heard before. So I weighed in, suggesting that while it's frustrating, we ought to refrain from using hurtful words, etc., etc. (The discussion revolved around siblings being expected to provide care.)
Well, I'd wandered into a viper pit, and I was accused of being in an ivory tower and not knowing about real life; someone said I was selfish to even CONSIDER breeding (yes, they used the word "breeding") if I didn't know my kids would be healthy (Who CAN know their kids will be healthy? But again, these people hate anyone who has kids, anyway, or at least want families far, far away from them) and called me a vile name, and just...wow. I felt violated and beaten up just by reading the responses.
It astounds me how many people say terrible things without it ever occurring to them that IT COULD'VE BEEN ME, yet it still affects me negatively when they do, when I know that people in the past see me as "less-than" because I have a sibling with autism, because my family endured long bouts of screaming and violence before finding anything to really help with the behavior issues, and maybe because I tend to obsess about it.
I am a believer in Jesus as the ONLY way and finally, today, did a search specifically to find what Christians were saying about autism. It raises severe questions for me that I wrestle hard with at times: could this really be God's will? Are screaming tantrums, for example, part of God's "plan," or is it just some environmental effect gone terribly wrong? I get very frustrated with people who want to be all "warm and fuzzy" about the realities of living with developmental disabilities. But I know that God is good. There are days that I need to be reminded of that more than others. So thank you so much for having the courage to post about your life and thoughts.