30 Hope and Help for Parenting a Child with Special Needs

Episode Summary:

If you are the parent or relative of a special needs child or support a friend who is, then today is the perfect show for you.

Misty is the parent to a son who had grand mal seizures and was eventually diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis and PANDAS. The strep virus went to his brain and began to attack his brain, leaving him with multiple deficits. He was born with club feet, rarely slept the first three years of his life, had severe sensory sensitivity, had delayed speech, and required multiple hospitalizations. She felt very much alone because none of her friends could relate, and she homeschooled her children which further isolated them. 

In this episode Misty shares how she and her husband found hope despite parenting a child with special needs. She offers insight for other parents with a child with special needs, as well as for how friends and family can support parents with a child with special needs. God knew each of us before we were knit in our mother’s womb, and He has a purpose and a plan for each of us. Remembering this is crucial for parents with a child with special needs. He has given you your child because He knew you were the best parent this child could have. Now lean into Him for wisdom and direction.

Quotables from the episode:

• You are never alone on your journey. Life is hard, but God is always there with us
• God entrusts our children to us. He knows out of all the parents, who are the perfect parents for our children.  Nonetheless, He wants us to seek Him for wisdom in our parenting endeavors. It’s not our responsibility for us to have all the answers, but if we seek Him, He will guide us.
• We have no control. We’d like to think that we have control over our lives but we don’t. But if God has allowed something to come into our lives, God is good, and He loves us, and we can trust that His sovereign hand has allowed it to happen, and we can learn and grow from it. No matter what that circumstance is, He is our hope, and He will see us through it.
• God loves us for who we are, just right where we are. We don’t have to do anything to earn His love.
• Parents of special needs children share some universal struggles. They tend to feel alone, and for that it helps to be in community both with other parents of special needs children, but also with parents of children that don’t have special needs.
• It’s so important that parents of special needs children, and all parents really, take care of themselves because if we won’t take care of ourselves, we are not going to be able to care for those God has entrusted to us.
• During those times when we feel like we aren’t cut out for parenting, shifting our perspective to one of gratitude and praise makes all the difference. Yes, parenting is hard, especially a child with special needs, but it also affords some blessings we wouldn’t have had otherwise, like meeting different people, and even traveling to different places because of their medical care.
• Also, cling to God’s word because it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Get into the word and pray. Be expectant that God wants to answer you. Recognize your child as the blessing that he/she is from the Lord, and look for the joy afforded to you by having them in your presence.

Scripture References:

• Psalm 139:13, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
• Psalm 127:3-5, “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!”
• Matthew 19:14, “But Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.”

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