On Thursdays, I take my son, Kenny, to speech therapy. We park along the curb in front of the school, and Kenny and I “race” to see who gets to the school doors first. (He always wins.) Kenny knows the routine: I sign in at the office and put on a “Visitor” sticker, and we go around the corner and down the hall to the speech therapist’s office. Kenny loves his teacher and the other students in his small group. He enjoys the activities they do together, and he looks forward to getting prizes for good attendance.
He also likes getting to check out books from the school library after therapy. He has this privilege because he is enrolled as a student in the district, even though he is only four years old. Because he is officially a student, he has all the rights and privileges of students in the Fort Worth ISD, despite taking only one “class”.
Kenny is not classified as a “regular” student, however. He is classified as being in the special education program. In other words, he is a “special needs” student.
“Special needs” is not a label that any mother hopes her child will grow up to earn. I was no different. I didn’t want Kenny to struggle with any difficulties that would cause him pain. I didn’t want other kids to treat him differently because of his God-given needs.
I knew that this label represented a truth that would cause Kenny to have to work harder than other kids to achieve the same milestones and acceptance. Even now, I am still afraid sometimes that people will look at Kenny and see his difficulties, instead of seeing the wonderful child that he is.
But actually, Kenny is not the only one in our family who has special needs. He’s not the only one who has to work harder in some areas. Our other three children have special needs, too. So do my husband and I.
So do your children.
So do you.
You see, dear mommy friend, we are all special needs students when it comes to the spiritual aspects of life. Oh, our bodies and minds may be physically healthy, but spiritually speaking, we all have special needs.
In fact, each one of us possesses a soul with one extremely special need—the need to be redeemed by the grace of God. Once that occurs, we sometimes assume that everything will fall into place.
It doesn’t always—or even usually—happen that way.
No matter how “together” someone may look on the outside, even she has special needs. No matter how self-sufficient we may want to be, we can never be need-free.
Perhaps God has allowed these seeds of suffering and struggle into our lives so that we will remember that we need Him, and so that we’ll depend on Him instead of on our own strength.
Kenny has to depend on others to help him succeed in areas that are more difficult for him. You and I need to depend on God for the same thing.
If we are to depend on Him, we must spend time with him. Kenny’s needs provide a reason and an avenue for the two of us to work closely together and spend time together that we might not otherwise get to have to ourselves. So, though I would wish his needs to disappear if I could, I recognize their beauty not only in shaping his character but in shaping our life together.
How do you see your special needs? Are they merely an unfortunate or even tragic burden, or do you also see in them the opportunity to draw closer to God in a way that you otherwise might not?
Ask God to help you see your needs as He sees them. You may come to realize that even though your needs themselves are not beautiful, they can be part of God’s beautiful design for your life.
2 Corinthians 12:10—That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.