Encourage your children!

A couple weeks ago Jordan came home from Super Friday, a fun school only on Friday's for homeschoolers to take cool classes with other kids, and told me an awesome story.  She told me that she took my advise and sought out a friend at snack time that was sitting all alone.  She said that the little girl looked younger than her and had no friends. She asked the little girl to sit with her and she has been sitting with them at snack time ever since that day.  Jordan told me that this little girl has a speech impediment.  She said that when they first sat together the little girl never smiled and would hardly talk, but now she sees her smile sometimes.  A while back I had the overwhelming desire to teach Jordan to be compassionate towards special needs children and to teach her to seek out those who may be having a hard time making friends.  Of course Jacob was the trigger for that.  I want my children to love people with special needs.  I want my children to show them compassion and genuine friendship despite their differences. These kids may look weird or different or talk funny or say strange things, but we have to show them Christ's love.  So I am on a mission to help my children see these people through God's eyes.  They are fearfully and wonderfully made, just like you and I, and God has a special and unique plan for them.  So I wanted to blog this and encourage you to teach your children the same.  The funny thing is, people who don't have special needs children in their lives or work with them on a constant basis don't usually think about these kids or to talk much about them with their own kids.  So I sincerely ask anyone reading this to educate your children about people with special needs and to show them how to be kind and friendly.  That is something that can, at times, be humiliating if others are making fun of them or hard because some special needs kids are hard to get along with, but the character that can be built out of teaching that kind of compassion is priceless.  Your one child can make all the difference in the world to a kid with zero friends and a hundred bullies.  I know that I am going on a rant about this, but it literally tears at my heart to hear stories of children that are so lonely and hurt by bullies or people who are just scared of them because they are different.  I watched a video today about Asperger's Syndrome that I thought was very informative about their thinking and wanted to share it.  Please join me in teaching our children how to interact with special needs kids.  People with down syndrome, autism, physical disabilities, and other disabilities are also made in God's image.  Do you ever think about that?  I know that I find that so encouraging and so awesome.  My son with autism, who spins in circles and eats carpet, who can't speak or communicate, but who loves on me and smiles so sweet, HE is made in God's image.  He is God's creation, here on earth in order to bring glory to God! That is so AWESOME!

Here is the video if you'd like to view it...

http://youtu.be/WAfWfsop1e0