A grace culture will never exist when we are unwilling to go the extra mile to extend grace without judgment. When someone is not like us, it is so hard to get past the differences and find the grace and love that needs to be conveyed to bring hope and healing. Today, because of the human condition, we continue to struggle with racial barriers, socioeconomic class wars, and stigmas based on our looks, abilities and status. Many times these stigmas have been passed down like a generational curse for the next person to inherit. There is nothing worse than an ignorant thought passed down by a presumably mature parent influencing an immature child. But it’s important as special needs parents to give the same grace to others as were asking people to give to us. We can either hold an offense or try to understand what has been passed down to them. Though it may not be good, if we were ingrained with the same ideology by our parents and the community we lived in how difficult would it be for us to look at things differently. I’ve seen so many special needs parents including myself sometimes hold an offense by how our family was treated as a special needs parent. There comes a time where we have to just Let It Go.
Recently I was asked by my friend Karl Hagestrom to speak about special needs at a crusade in Africa with him. Thousands of people came from all over the valley to hear about a God who loves them. Of course I was very excited as we were waiting to go on the stage to speak. As we were sitting there, Karl leaned over and said, “You know, I’m not sure how these people are going to respond to your message tonight. You must understand there is a huge negative stigma concerning those with special needs.” They think their children are cursed. At first my righteous indignation rose up and I thought to myself I will tell them! I’ll set them straight. How can these people look at these children as a curse???
