Friday, March 11, 2016

Hope that does not Disappoint

Often, living life in a home where there is a child with “high needs” can be exhausting.  It can easily be discouraging when we see our children failing to meet the milestones that typical children are soon passing.  If I'm not careful, that discouragement so quickly crawls into the crevices of my mind and I must remember that I am learning to live a different dream for my child.  
 
There is sometimes a grey cloud cover on this journey, hovering ominously on the horizon, as if Eyeore has taken up residence in my home. And I don’t want him here, gloomy and mopey, always certain that the next step on the journey will bring disaster and more disappointment.  I want my home to be one where Christopher Robin would love to live: full of anticipation, adventure, laughter, and hope.

Hope, in my mind, is a key word for parents, for caretakers and for children living with developmental delays. Actually, especially for children with special needs. 

Hope. Not as in I want something to happen or be the case,  not referring to the lucky feeling when we hope to win the lottery, nor focused on the wanting when we hope to get a bike for Christmas.

I’m referring to lasting hope.  
Hope that does not disappoint
Hope that is bigger and deeper and surer than any diagnosis. 
Hope that looks beyond the possibilities of cures and medications.  
Hope, the desire of some good with the expectation of obtaining it. 
This is my hope that does not disappoint: Christ my Savior, with the promise of heaven to come.

Hope which reminds me even though we had major behavioral set-backs today, I know that tomorrow is a new day filled with grace. Hope that reassures me in-spite of my shortcomings as a parent, my child can set his sights on One who is greater than me. It is the object of my hope: the sure and steady anchor in the storms of disability, Christ alone.

And in light of that hope, on hard days, I can choose to take a deep breath, to offer an embracing hug and kneel in quiet prayer and say the words “I love you, I forgive you”.  It is because of a future hope, secure and true, that I know that I know, that my child has a purpose and plan in life. It is this hope that gives me confidence that even when I fail and we have to try again tomorrow, one day there will be no failures, there will be no more disability.  And I exalt in the hope of that glory! For THAT hope, that anchor for my soul, does not disappoint.