What Matters Most

Recently we got Jon Alex's latest progress report from his school. Because he is in a CDC classroom, his progress report looks different from a traditional report card. The report runs several pages long and lists in detail all these goals and skills they are working on. Then each entry gets a numerical score to indicate whether progress is being made and, if so, to what degree.

I use to cringe when the report came out.  I knew what it would say.

I dreaded it to the point that I quit reading it.

Page after page of seeing the same things mentioned over and over along with notations of no progress being made. The entire process was just so depressing and demoralizing.

Over the years I've come to terms with it and can now accept it.

As parents of a profoundly developmentally challenged child, I've come to terms with a lot of things over the years.

My son will never excel at athletics. He will never be a scholar. He will never paint a masterpiece, solve complex math problems, write a novel, play a musical instrument, or score the winning basket.

And I'm OK with all that.

What I want for Jon Alex is for him  to realize the love of Jesus Christ and then allow his life to be a mirror that reflects that love to others and draws them to Christ. In other words, just for his life to reflect God's glory in every way and point them to Jesus.

That's what matters most. That's a life of true significance.

And from the moment of his birth I have seen God's hand on his life, giving him a plan and a purpose and a destiny that glorifies God.

Meanwhile you and I still struggle. We think we have to earn something- achieve something- accomplish something.

We measure our success in life by the size of our paycheck or house, by our title or career, by what we accomplish, build, or master.

And so we go on wasting our lives on things that just don't matter.

What if every one of us got up every day determined to do nothing else but receive the love of God, and then be a mirror that reflects his love to the world?

What if?

I believe we would change the world one day at a time.