Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may become mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
When it comes to being chosen to be the parent of a child with special needs, this passage is not always easy to take in. I have been on this road for almost nine years now, and I still have trouble believing—truly believing it…depending on which path I find myself on at any given moment.
But recently I heard Laura Story’s latest song, “Blessings.” The first time I heard it, I didn’t really hear all the words because I was weeping. Weeping at the fact that so many emotions that I have experienced at many twists and turns on this road she managed to put all together in one song. Words that can only come from experience.
Laura Story is not a “special” parent, but she has shared on many radio stations that this song was birthed through the trials she and her husband faced when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor—and in the midst of praying for his healing.
This is the chorus:
'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?
Trials=mercies.
Think about that for a minute.
Challenging to let that thought take root.
But what if?
What if they are?
What if it’s all part of His master plan of choosing us to be special parents?
So if I believe that He chose me for this amazing task, and if I believe that it is all in His purpose for my life, I have no choice—even on the hardest days—to consider it all joy—and receive His blessings.
Even when I can’t see them.
Even when I can’t feel them.
I resolve to turn it all over to Him, because without Him in my life, I wouldn’t have been able to be the mother that I am.
So I am grateful and so very proud to be a parent of a child with special needs, for through her challenges, I found the Lord.
And I choose to believe the “what ifs” in this song.
Choose to believe with me today.
~Maria
To hear Laura Story’s “Blessings” click here:
