Let My RADlet Go!!
By Kathryn Taylor
As I parent Reactive Attachment Disorder, I liken myself to Moses.
My RADlet is the ever-hardened Pharoah. Our friends, family and
peers are the all too fickle Israelites.
God calls Moses to go down to Egypt to deliver his people from bondage. Moses responds by informing God of all his own shortcomings. God tells Moses that with His help he will be all right. Moses argues more, which angers God. God then tells Moses that He will call Moses' brother Aaron to help him.
For those who know the story all too well, it gets pretty stressful
in Egypt before it is all said and done. The Israelites blame Moses
for added hardship. Moses questions God's plans and intentions, even
though God warned him twice of Pharoah's impending stubbornness. But in the end, all the drama of the Exodus was to bring glory to God.
As I bring this story to life within my own, I try to see what God
was doing then, and could be doing in my life now. Like Moses, I
find myself whining to God that I am ill-equipped to parent these
RADlets. This mentality did not please God with Moses. So, when I
find myself grumbling and complaining, I try to lean more on God and
trust that He will equip me with what I need to accomplish this task
of deliverance.
I wonder if I had known up front that our RADlets would not get
better, would I have taken on this task? Would I have worked so
hard at raising these kids if I had known that absolutely nothing we
tried, or how much suffering we endured, would not make a difference
in helping our kids? How did Moses carry on in faith, doing what God
told him to, watching the pain and destruction of the land, enduring
the condemnation of the very people he had been sent to deliver, knowing all the while that God had hardened their hearts? What was the point of it all? God was looking for trust and obedience from Moses. God was looking to strengthen the Israelites' faith. Everything that happened in Egypt was to bring glory to God, and to prepare Moses and the Israelites for what lied ahead. Each and every plague had a purpose.
So, changing my perspective on raising a hard-hearted RADlet, brought
me more peace. Instead of making a goal of getting through to our
RADlets, my focus turned to drawing close to God and doing the things
I felt He was telling me to do. I try to ignore their hard-
heartedness and focus on spiritual growth for me and the rest of our
family who want to do what is right. I need to overlook the attitude
of other people who accuse and don't know any better about what God
is really doing in our family, like the Israelites didn't understand
or trust that Moses was their deliverer. Whether our RADlets ever
accept a good life or not, is up to them and God. My job is to do
what I know to be right, react and act as God would have me to, and
leave the rest up to Him.
God uses broken, inexperienced, flawed people to do His most
miraculous work. He never chose men or women that everyone else
thought was best for a job. He shines His absolute best in those of
us who rely heavily on Him because we are just broken vessels who
love, live, and aren't afraid to die. RAD parents, that is what we
are, broken vessels. We love with all of our hearts, we live to help
those who need us most, and we don't fear death because often it
would be a relief to what we endure. May God carry us on wings like
an eagle, give us patience like Joseph in jail, give us faith like
Daniel surrounded by lions, give us endurance like David, hiding from
Saul, and redeem us as He did Job, in his darkest hour.
copyright 2003
