God has been teaching me a lot about savoring the hard moments. Whether the hard moments happen on our special needs journey, in my faith or as a mother. I wrote about savoring the hard moments here.
But there’s another area God is reminding me to savor – the small moments!
I’ve learned it’s many small moments that lead to the miracle!
It’s so important for special needs mamas to savor the small moments that might not seem like that big of a deal to the outside world.
We must savor the sacred moments instead of stressing out about the next big thing.
Because let’s be honest, having a child with special needs means we are always worrying about something – are they where they need to be academically? Will insurance cover the new therapy? What if insurance doesn’t cover the new therapy? Will they have friends? Will he have another good day at school tomorrow? Will he ever eat anything other than PB&J?
The list of what ifs can go on and on and on.
But the Bible says, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)
The Message version of Matthew 6:34 is my absolute favorite! This truth has been a balm to my weary soul when I’ve felt overwhelmed or uncertain as a special needs mom.
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
I want to give my entire attention to what God is doing at this exact moment!
I want to celebrate the smallest of accomplishments.
I don’t want worry to steal my joy.
I want to savor each moment.
Here are a few of the moments from last week that I’m still savoring:
- The day he landed on blue at school (which is the absolute best day you can have) and I stinking started crying! I didn’t even care if the office staff thought I was crazy! He had the BEST day and he was beaming when he walked into the office to tell me! A part of me wanted to start worrying about the next day and the rest of the week, but I stopped myself! I savored the moment!
- When my kiddo with Apraxia dominated these books! A friend gave them to us to borrow and he read them ALL with very little help from me! He made me sit with him until he had read each one! I can’t even tell you how proud I was! I was so worried that reading was going to be very, very hard for him, but he’s rocking the sight words and he’s reading! I savored the moment!
- When the little girl at church called Jackson by name. We visited a new church and I could tell Jackson was anxious. Honestly, I was too. Going to a new church is hard when you have a child with special needs, but when we walked into the classroom I got the surprise of my life! A little girl said, “I know Jackson. He’s in my class. But not anymore!” It turns out the little girl was in his general education kindergarten class! I felt God winking at me in that moment. I savored the moment!
- When I received the following email from Jackson’s teacher saying he tested ABOVE average in reading! Not only that, he was only two words away from scoring the top score! I often question if I have what it takes to teach Jackson the way he best learns, but this news was reassurance that Jackson and I are a great team! He has worked SO hard. He gets home from school and we work a TON on sight words and reading. These are also skills he works on in speech therapy twice a week. No, speech and reading have not come easy. It’s taken a lot of perseverance and a lot of prayer, but it feels SO good to celebrate this milestone and listen to him read books! I savored the moment!
What moments have you savored this week?