I don’t think in the beginning when someone looks at child with special needs the first thought that comes to mind is “Greatness” I mean how can something that on the outside some people would assume deficient have the best chance for greatness? This is how the human finite mind works. If it doesn’t appear to have promise how can it be promising? If it doesn’t appear to be beautiful how can it be beautiful? I’m glad God doesn’t look at things the way some people do. How many miracles would we have missed if God didn’t help us see the possibility? One of the greatest gifts God gives to us is by helping us understand that potential is not realized because someone started out with all the perfect ingredients. Potential is realized when someone sees the flower in the seed. No one is ever born great, they develop greatness. Somebody saw the potential of the destiny before the destiny was realized. They had to look deeper than the circumstance. They had to live in the vision and not the circumstance.
In the Old Testament if the people of Israel were to compare the strapping stoic King Saul to scrawny no count David from the outside, it wouldn’t have even been a contest. Saul would win in a landslide. He would have been the peoples pick to be King. No one would have seen the possibility of David being king. Even David’s own father showed the prophet Samuel everyone of his other son’s before he presented David. Why? Because David didn’t look like a King from the outside. Yet, I have found who we think should be king may not be who God thinks should be king. The enemy will try to cover up greatness. The enemy will put up weeds to choke the seed of greatness. He wants to blind us from what could be so we will accept what we have. When we reflect on God’s view of people and we see the world from His perspective, we are removing the weeds that choke out what’s possible. When our hearts are ready, we are able to see the destiny seeds in others.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.” Man looks on the outside but God looks deep with in and looks at the heart. Where it really becomes powerful is when he gets us to believe there is something great inside someone else even when no one else sees it. Who would have ever seen greatness in Helen Keller from the outside. She was blind, deaf, and mute…Three strikes against greatness. Her destiny would seem to be just to survive. Especially in the era she lived in with far less medical advances, far less tools and understanding to develop multiple special needs. Yet her teacher ( ) saw a destiny seed of greatness that God had planted. She saw an amazing flower that could blossom in the midst of what others would call barren seed. She called forth greatness when others would have gotten frustrated and given up. Helen Keller became a great American hero in spite of her challenges because someone watered what God had already sown. The greatest legacy is not what we leave for people, it’s what we leave in people.
Sometimes you cannot just hope for greatness you have to call it forth. With our kids we may have to speak it over them everyday and call forth the greatness of the destiny seed God has planted inside of them. Speaking everyday over them…My child is talented, my child is creative, my child is healed, my child is a masterpiece, my child will do great things. God is not moved by our circumstance, He is moved by our faith. He understands, he is compassionate, he loves us but what he is really moved by is our belief that He can do anything. When it looks impossible do we still believe?
We may not get help from our friends. We may not even get support from our family. They may be too busy looking at reality to realize the possibility. But I have found this to be true…sometimes to do something great you may have to stand alone. The good thing is when you take that step of faith for your child you will find God’s sovereign presence surrounding you like a hedge of protection.
I declare the seeds of greatness that God has placed inside of your children are coming to life. They are going to do things that others said they would never do. They are going to rise up and become all God has destined them to become. Speak forth those seeds of greatness over them. Don’t let reality or peoples opinion steal the promise God has for our children. It’s not what we know it’s what He knows. Sometimes we are educated way beyond our obedience and faith. Let God’s love compel us to believe even when it looks impossible. Our children are destined for Greatness.
michael
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I posted your article here http://www.carepages.com/carepages/JournalingForTheJazzman/updates/3791984 with a link back to this page on the Care Page Medical blog I keep for my very complex special needs son, Josiah. He is now 19 and recently “graduated” from High School with a diploma after many years of challenges and struggles. I am in the midst of a special education battle primarily in relation to Transition Needs in an attempt to finally have such arenas fully addressed. Josiah is an amazingly resilient young man. He has undergone 17 surgeries (including 2 open-heart, a brain tumor removal, a whole liver transplant, and recently eye surgery to correct congenital double vision). Josiah is on the Autism Spectrum and we have had many battles (only a few completely victorious) trying to get his exceedingly complex needs appropriately and comprehensively met.
The amazing thing about him is his tremendous love for the Lord. Josiah has such a relationship with the Lord that in many ways it’s like he doesn’t have the veil between himself and the lover of his soul. He has come such a long way from the early days when professionals thought he’d never walk nor talk or never read nor write. In fact, Josiah has recently begun keeping his own Care Page at http://www.carepages.com/carepages/JosiahTheOvercomer where he often shares his praise and worship of the Lord. He’s also working hard on sharing some personal aspects of his journey through life. His attitude and resilience are such a testimony to God’s amazing provision and strength…and Christ’s Resurrection Power, to bring someone that certain systems of this world practically perceived as as good as dead to being a Champion Public Proclaimer of his Faith and Love for Jesus.
Thank you for sharing this uplifting and encouraging post. Seeing with eyes of faith can be such a challenge when going through exceedingly painful and confusing times. God gave our children the gift of life and that includes all their unique complexities. Although it is so easy to look at the attendant difficulties as burdens, it is also possible to be filled with joy at the privilege of being entrusted with special souls. They call from us so much more than we are able to give in our own natural state and require us to dig deeper in our own faith to weather so many storms associated with caring for them and championing their cause within systems that are so often overwhelmed and understaffed and often lacking in compassion, insight, and/or comprehensive professionalism.
May God Bless You and Your Wife as you continue to be champions of faith in the raising up of your sons…your quiver is full of unique arrows and you are blessed mightily in the Lord as you have been entrusted in molding and shaping each of them to be perfectly fit for the Service of the King of Kings!
In Christ,
Valerie Curren
Craig, you have NO idea how appropriate this is to the season we’re in with my redhead. Oh, boy. I will camp on this truth you shared: “Sometimes you cannot just hope for greatness you have to call it forth. With our kids we may have to speak it over them everyday and call forth the greatness of the destiny seed God has planted inside of them.” Thank you for the encouragement!
Thanks Laurie! This is what I’ve had to do in my life with our children…Call it forth. It’s amazing how faithful God has been.
What an amazing post. Thank you. My son was diagnosed on the autism spectrum at age 8. A teacher told me he belonged in a resource room all day. Thankfully we didn’t want to just do that without the old college try. He graduated from high school. He finally got a 504 plan his senior year so we could get some accommodations in college. He just started community college. Yes, there have been bumps but he’s Going to Make it. Thanks again for this article.
Thank you Ruth. I will be cheering on your son that he will be everything God created him to be. I believe his best days are ahead of him!
This has been a very difficult few weeks for me. My 13 year old son, Caleb, has Angelman Syndrome. Over the past 2 weeks, Caleb’s private speech and private occupational therapists dropped him because he has not been making
“adequate progress”. A behavioral therapist came into Caleb’s school and is “stripping” away most of his minimal goals (including the goal to increase his vocabulary by 15 “words” or in his case pictures) saying that the goals are too advanced and he is not capable of reaching them in one year.
My heart is broken and I’m questioning everything ever I’ve done or haven’t done for Caleb to help him grow and increase his skills. I don’t know where to turn or what to try next. I’m wondering if this is it. Is this the “best” he is going to be? Is everyone really so willing to give up on my beautiful 13 year old little boy? Almost all of his supports are being pulled out from under him and I can’t do anything about it.
I’m so thankful for this article that is reminding me that it doesn’t matter what
the world thinks of Caleb, It only matters what God thinks.
I really needed to hear this today! Thank you.
My heart goes out to you and I would like to encourage you that I too have learned to measure my daughter’s greatness in other ways than goals and objectives. I don’t diminish your desire to want so much for your son. I constantly remind myself to focus on the inspiration my daughter gives to others as my husband and I share our family’s journey. That is where I see greatness. When people offer us pity, I have to tell them they are looking at a miracle, not a broken child. God bless you and your family as you continue to be an awesome parent on your special needs journey.
Thanks Jennifer. Sometimes there will be times you may have to stand alone but God is with you. Keep going. You may not see the progress but keep calling it forth. God is working behind the scenes and as you stay faithful Caleb will not only make progress but he will move beyond peoples expectations. God has got Caleb in the palm of His hands. His best days are ahead of him. 🙂
Awesome! My daughter exhibits her God-given greatness everyday as she has far exceeded any doctor’s expectations because she is ALIVE and THRIVING. My faith is strengthened everyday because of her progress. My daughter’s story has encouraged others and I had no idea it would, especially when we received her diagnosis before she was born. My husband and I thought it would be a story of sadness. However, in the midst of the challenges, it has turned into a story of joy and GREATNESS.
Thanks Denie! Your daughter is an inspiration. Greatness is in her DNA! God bless you and your family.