{"id":119,"date":"2015-04-08T22:26:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T22:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=119"},"modified":"2015-04-08T22:26:51","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T22:26:51","slug":"faith-and-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How is he going to have a relationship with an unseen God, when he doesn&#8217;t seem to want a relationship with people he sees?<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the question that circled my brain not long after my son was diagnosed with autism.\u00a0 I remember standing over his bed one night staring at his face, crying.\u00a0 It had been a day filled with tantrums and avoidance.\u00a0 He just wanted to be left alone.\u00a0 It made me sad to watch his sibling try to interact with him only to have their gestures met with screams and hitting.\u00a0 The only time he wanted<em> me<\/em> was when he needed something that he couldn&#8217;t get himself.\u00a0 He didn&#8217;t even come to me for comfort when he was sad or upset.\u00a0 I grieved for a relationship that would never be.<\/p>\n<p>As I cried out to God, asking for help and comfort, questions flooded my head.\u00a0 How am I going to teach him about You, God?\u00a0 How am I going to teach him about having a relationship with You when he doesn&#8217;t seem to want a relationship with the people he lives with?\u00a0 How will he know You and Your saving grace,\u00a0Your\u00a0comfort, Your peace?<\/p>\n<p>I later told a frien<a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-126 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"WP_20150408_006\" width=\"221\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006-800x800.jpg 800w, http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/WP_20150408_006.jpg 1513w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><\/a>d about my questions.\u00a0 She lovingly reminded me that God had created my son and knew all about his disability.\u00a0 She reminded me that God already knew how He would reveal Himself to my son.\u00a0 \u00a0He knew my son&#8217;s heart.\u00a0 God had it covered.\u00a0 I was just to trust.\u00a0 Trust God&#8217;s plan.\u00a0 Trust God&#8217;s leading.\u00a0 Trust.<\/p>\n<p>It seems like a simple thing to do especially when you are talking about trusting God who is loving, all knowing, and sovereign.\u00a0 But, there have been days when it&#8217;s hard.\u00a0 Days when I wondered if my son could really believe in a God he cannot see.<\/p>\n<p>Trust Me.<\/p>\n<p>Trust Me.<\/p>\n<p>So I trust.\u00a0 And God gives me glimpses of what He&#8217;s doing.\u00a0 My son\u00a0uses his\u00a0beautiful voice\u00a0to sing praise songs every chance he gets, even if it&#8217;s in the middle of a crowded store. \u00a0He prays for healing when he&#8217;s sick,\u00a0trusting that God will make him better.\u00a0 He wears a cross every day so that others know he follows Christ.<\/p>\n<p>I celebrate those things.\u00a0 I thank God for allowing me to see His work.\u00a0 And I continue to trust&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How is he going to have a relationship with an unseen God, when he doesn&#8217;t seem to want a relationship with people he sees? That&#8217;s the question that circled my brain not long after my son was diagnosed with autism.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=119\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,5],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-autism","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}