I found my life so busy with everyday living that time with God one on one was limited – so I thought! That being said, He was preparing a new path for my learning! The A Beka program we were following included Bible lessons.
My son and I both had an opportunity to learn God’s Word together on our son’s level. While teaching the Religion classes at our church, I was responsible for the upper grades while our own children were still too young for my classes.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the A Beka program was intense. For the Catholic program for our Religion classes, we usually followed the curriculum and it was more on learning stories and topics. This program was intense memorization and knowing scripture verses to the T. This is something we had never done before. We picked apart verses and studied them. During mass of course, we would hear the Gospel and passages, but this was different.
I began to see and hear the verses I read from past Bible reading in a whole new perspective! Not only was there memorization involved, but there was history behind verses with dates and knowledge I had never heard before. Quite frankly, I had always just accepted what I had been told and never questioned the what and why’s about them.
For example, The Lord’s Passover when even Jesus celebrated it right before His death – there was to be no leavening in the households. No fermentation like yeast was to be used in anything. Of course that was why during that last meal they had a flat bread and fruit of the vine. They used no bread that was raised and no wine. I thought about that concept and wondered why the church was adamant on flat bread and not the wine, which is leavening.
I began connecting dots and questioning what I knew. I began to really pay more attention and comparing notes to that which I had written from studying and what we were learning. The further we studied, oh the more questions I had!
And, the more questions I had, the more I asked each preacher when I helped to clean the rectory. I had one that when I would begin a sentence with, “I was reading…,” he’d just smile because he knew what was coming next. I think he enjoyed the questions though and I would challenge him as well.
But the real challenge was honestly homeschooling. My son and I would be like the fighting wild animals on the tv nature shows, except for more on the verbal side than physical. Sometimes I questioned myself on the outcome and if we should put him back into the public school system or not.
When you have disabilities of any nature, whether mental challenges or physical, the public atmosphere can be rough, unforgiving, and ignorant. Sometimes even those close to you tend to not understand. As much as our son could be a stinker at times, the instigators always got by with their agitating.
For example, when our son was maybe in the 2nd grade, a teacher called to let us know he was being punished for hitting or calling someone a name or something to another student. I asked what the other student said or did to upset him so and the answer was, “Well I didn’t think to ask.” If you are going to call a parent and reprimand one child, all facts need to be known first.
Now I make no excuse for our son’s behavior and he was always punished for his bad behavior, but because this type of thing happened so often, we continued to homeschool. A therapist once told us that he would catch up and this was typical for a child born with trauma, but in the meantime, I had to gain more sanity and patience. Patience! I asked God once why I was being challenged when He knew I lacked patience! Little did I know then what He said about accusing Him. Oh the lessons in life we learn as we grow.
I felt a bag of emotions for that boy. From frustration to a soft spot and all the in between. Our kids were and still are my pride and joy. God has blessed me with a family of my own to love and He has helped me through so much from my childhood, I owe Him all my love and respect today! With the challenges faced with everyday living and dealing with other’s issues, I found myself quite humbled that He has led me to where I am today.
