Broken...or Not?

I was listening to the Lord the other day..it was His turn to talk. ;0} I was talking with Him about Adam and I don't remember exactly what I had been saying to Him, but His answer was; "You want to fix him, but did I say he was broken?"
That stopped me where I was. I didn't realize that I thought this way. I pray for Adam all the time, but realizing that I think he's broken revealed a great deal to me.
As I pursue a new direction in ministry for people with special needs, my understanding of how the Father sees them has deepened. I have always known that He loves them just the way they are, and that they are created in His image and likeness. I've come to understand that they are created with gifts and abilities from Him that we often don't see. One of these is their ability to know and understand God in ways that go beyond what I know. I see this in Adam.
So what did God mean in what He said to me? Did He mean that I shouldn't pray for Adam to be healed? NO. Healing is the children's bread (see Matthew 15:21-28) The point is that Adam isn't broken just because he's in need of healing. The Father sees him as whole. I need to see him the same way.
In Adam's spirit, he is complete. He knows and loves God. On the outside, he has many needs, but he is not broken. He is just in need. As I continue to pursue the Lord in this awareness, I know He'll teach me more. For now, I've settled inside as I continue to pray for him.

When a child is born with special needs, or becomes ill and then develops disabilities, the family's dreams for the child are crushed. They know he or she will never become the doctor, lawyer, teacher or parent that they were thinking about. Perhaps their child will never speak, walk or fully know them.There may be life long needs for medical interventions or surgery. There are many degrees of disability, and many depths of pain for the family. Our family knows this well, and each one of us deals with it in our own way. I wrote a bit about that recently.(Just One Of Those Days) It had to do with milestones that Adam will never reach. Like driving, or dating, or just hanging out with friends. But it's also his need for help with everyday living skills. Our desire is for him to be more independant, and over time, he will become more so, but he will always need someone to help him. He will never live on his own. I feel badly for him about that, but he doesn't seem to care. He likes it here. :0}

But what was my point?....oh yes, broken or not broken. When our dreams for Adam came crashing down, I guess I saw him as having gotten broken, because as far as we know, he was not disabled when he was born. He became seriously ill, and everything changed. Personally, I felt like we lost who he was supposed to be. I felt that he was cheated out of becoming everything he was meant to become. And our family was too. God stopped by the other day and gave me a reality check. Adam is not broken. He's fine the way he is. God knows him and he knows God. I have many typically developed friends and family whom I can't say the same about. It's a matter of perspectives, isn't it?
I like the Father's perspective on this subject much better than my own.

Have a great day and enjoy all the blessings in your life. Be thankful for all that you have. Love the ones around you to the fullest that you're able. They need that and so do you. Thanks for visiting here again. I hope you make a return trip soon.

How God Does Surprise Me

It was hot today! Paul, Adam and I went in the pool to cool off. The guys were in for a long time before I joined them. I had some yard work I wanted to catch up on, and it's so much easier to accomplish things when Adam is occupied elsewhere. When I was finished working, I cleaned up my pruners and the weeds I had pulled, and then went over to the pool to relax.
I sat on the steps for a while before finally getting all the way into the water. Adam always wants to play the minute I'm in, and I was tired. I sat and talked with Paul and threw a ball for Adam, and we watched the butterflies on the butterfly bushes; it was such a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.. I swam for a few minutes and then Paul and I leaned on the side of the pool and just enjoyed the quiet time. I was telling him about the Io moth I had seen the night before. He said he sees them all the time at work; they come around the light on the garage door of his receiving room. Paul goes to work when it's still dark out, so he sees things that I don't. I was saying how I don't know what the Lord is telling me this time as He said, "Do you do well to be sad about the moth?" (see yesterday's post) Paul didn't know either, but
while we were talking, he pointed to the sky and said "Look! Love!"  "What?", I asked. "Look! It says love!. And no lie, it really did. There were four little clouds that spelled out the word "Love". God is so amazing.
I jumped out of the pool and ran into the house to get my camera. I should have grabbed my cell phone, because my cd-rom doesn't work and I can't download the pictures that I took. The pictures are great, but the clouds had already begun to move by the time I got back outside. The L is still pretty clear, but the rest is not. I was hoping to share the pictures with you. If I get this computer repaired, I'll download them and post them here. For now, you'll have to take my word for it. Or not. Maybe it was something just for us to see together. God wanted us to know that the moth dialog was about love. Everything He does is, you know. He created everything that is for love. His desire is that we would love the same way He does, and that we would be one. I'm trying. I don't always succeed, but I really am trying. I'm getting better all the time. God is for me, and when He's on your side, you can't fail.
Peace and love to all my readers tonight. God loves you. I do too. Sleep well and be blessed.

What's On Your Mind?

What's on your mind? Facebook is faithful to ask me this every day when I go to my profile page. I don't think they really care, do you? It's just one of the gadgets that get you thinking and wasting time there.
What if we asked each other that question every time we meet? And what if we really wanted to know? Would we really want to tell each other?
I have a friend who has come up with something new. She calls it the UFSOTD...unfiltered status of the day. She posts things that she is really thinking about without filtering them first. Some are really interesting, some are just really random, some are thought provoking. I admire her for being real with her world. That can be hard. You never know what will come back at you when you're real, and I think most of the time most of us filter most of what we say. We've been trained to do this, by our parents, by our friends and by our enemies. It might not be intentional, but we do it to each other. Why? Because we want to be accepted and acceptable. We want our kids to be accepted and acceptable. Isn't it sad that we can't be accepted and acceptable just the way we are? But we're afraid of being judged. So we filter our status in order to be accepted. In order to not be judged. In order to be loved.
There is One who will always ask for our unfiltered status. He will always want to know how we're  really feeling, what we're really thinking, what we really need. And He already knows, but He loves us and He wants us to trust Him so much that we'll tell Him the truth and not hide our real status. God stops by every day to check in with us. Actually, He never leaves. He loves it when we stop by to check in with Him. Go ahead; don't take my word for it; ask Him what's on His mind. He's waiting for you. You'll be glad you did.