On Sunday, I was so proud of Trent. This month and last month he was asked to help serve the Lord's Supper. We attend a small church and this time of year we go through a summer slump, so some of our men were not in attendance.
Now Trent is an excellent usher. He loves taking the offering and he does everything just as he was trained to do. The Lord's Supper is similar to taking the offering, and so it was nothing new or difficult for him to fill in for this task. In fact, he loved it. I could see the happiness on his face. He loves to be a part of things and he loves to serve the Lord.
But just as we all do at times, he failed at the next task he did.
As most of you know, Trent runs the sound system at our church. However, our other son, Chet, was on vacation this week and not there to assist Trent.
What happened?
A couple got up to sing their special. They were singing beautifully for about a minute when all of a sudden the sound system squealed. You know that sound--that awful sound where everyone puts their hands over their ears?
The couple stopped singing and our pastor ran over to the sound sytem to help Trent who was in a quandry about why this happened.
What did I do? I was embarrassed for our son. Then I quickly corrected myself. Trent made a mistake, just as we all do. Because of his disability he has been misjudged all his life. I decided that if other people thought poorly of him because of his mistake, then it was their problem, and not Trent's--or ours. Besides that, maybe they didn't think poorly of him at all. Maybe they actually accepted the fact that he simply made a mistake.
I tell this story for a reason. When we do the best raising our child who has special needs (or any child for that matter), and he flubs up, we need to leave the matter alone. Yes, disobedience or defiance needs to be dealt with, but when it is an honest mistake, as this was, we need leave it alone.
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