The countdown to Christmas is on! If you’re still looking for gift ideas, check out our Amazon store for books by our writing team. I know they would be an encouragement to you, as they have been to me!
- Barb shares how she has given her daughter the gift of acceptance: “If I am painfully honest with myself, my reason for wanting to change her is because I sometimes want her to fit my expectations and the expectations of others. I want things to be easier with her and for her. I don’t want other kids and other adults giving her a hard time for her differences. But then, when I focus on what I want, I am not accepting the beautiful, distinct creature God made her to be.”
- This cute kindergarten girl signed her Christmas concert as a surprise for her deaf parents. And speaking of the deaf community, The Inclusive Church shared a post on Understanding and Welcoming Individuals Who Are Deaf.
- Sandra shared at The MOB Society how having a son with special needs freed her from the pressure to be the perfect parent: “Instead of feeling pressure to make him fit into the typical-kid mold, I found freedom through his imperfections. It didn’t happen right away. But when I saw how my friends treated him like he was one of their own kids, when I saw our family rejoice with us over little accomplishments, when I saw our church become inclusive for kids with lots of different special-needs, I realized all those people loved him just the way he was. He didn’t have to live up to any standards. He didn’t have to reach every goal. And if he didn’t have to, neither did I.”
- From Different Dream, a reminder to focus on the successes this Christmas: “I’m learning that my child’s ability to cope does seem to get a little better as he gets older. However, his age is no guarantee for success in any situation. And that one word – success – is such a key word in all of this. What if you and I decided that we would only accept being defined by our successes this Christmas season? What if our yardstick for measuring our enjoyment of the holidays was only made up of the successful moments? We could do that, you know – just count the successes.”
If you’ve written a post that would encourage our audience, leave a link in the comments!
The following two tabs change content below.

Sandra is a pastor's wife and mom to two boys. She's the author of Speechless: Finding God's Grace in My Son's Autism and Held: Learning to Live in God's Grip (a Bible study for special-needs parents).

Latest posts by Sandra Peoples (see all)
- Be a Friend Who Shows Up When Life Is Hard - September 4, 2017
- Who Me … Traumatized? - August 18, 2017
- We’ve Moved to KeyMinistry.org - January 4, 2017