When you dream of more….

I was scrolling through my FB statuses this week and struck with a lot of thoughts this week.
For one, a lot of people do not like the cold. I am loving this cold weather! It might have to do with the fact that most of the time, I am inside and that really helps. My heat works well too, which is a plus.
One homeschool post said that basically all the “labels” we have decided children have today, are mostly made up, caused by lazy parents, lazy children and school systems that want our money. The poster claimed that in the ’70’s there were no struggling children in school. While I do not doubt that we have more labels than in the 70’s, all I have to do is look backwards in my own family history to know there were struggling learners in the 70’s that were not handled well. They were mocked, ridiculed, told they were stupid, lazy, dumb and other names. Many of them gave up on learning, while the ones that did not, fought through and had a lot of hardship while learning.

Other posts on FB, threw out facts about the debate that everyone was talking about. (I refused to watch it. Those things are generally not useful to anyone, in my opinion.), another one asked us to think about the fact that we check FB more than we read our bibles. That one was just a hole for someone to step in. Either way, you look bad. If you do read your bible before checking FB, the comment could be that you are legalistic and self-righteous. If you do not, you are practically pagan and need to repent.  I had to laugh a little at it though!
Today, there was a post about how much children need their dads and another one on involving dads in homeschooling. That one cut the deepest. You see, my husband struggles with everyday tasks. He has a few daily chores, a part time job, but sometimes it take an hour for him to get the mind set that he needs to go somewhere. I can ask him about something, and he can spend the next hour upset about the words that were used, the tone, and all I asked was if he could hand me a rag, please. His brain does not function like you and me. It struggles to understand, even the most basic of things at times.
 
You see, my husband has a mental illness. Many people have judgements or misunderstanding about what that is, but for us, it is a daily reminder of what we have lost. I do not know if my husband will attend my children’s graduation ceremonies. I don’t think he has ever seen our son’s play basketball. He does not know many of their friends. My husband does the best he can with what he has, but the simple fact of life is that he cannot handle many tasks we would think are normal. Then again, there are things he can do with precision that many other people cannot do. He can paint a house beautifully. He can drive a commercial vehicle safely and with skill, yet, it is a struggle for him to remember how to figure out other life basics.
Amy Simpson has some great blog posts on this….http://amysimpsononline.com/2013/09/evangelicals-youre-wrong-about-mental-illness/
Sometimes, if you see us, and see that things have slipped through the cracks, children are acting up, I look like I have not slept or something like that…you might want to think of us in your prayers. Life can be really tough sometimes, especially when I dream of more.
But for now, I am thankful for day to day stuff. The blessings that I do have, but sometimes the times when people do not understand, remember, there might be more behind the scenes than you know.