One Thing

As I have mentioned before, I have a particular child in my home who has a heavy burden to carry.  This child doesn't fully understand body language or facial expressions.  He doesn't understand his own emotions or much beyond "happy" and "sad", and even those emotions he gets mixed up sometimes.  Some days he seems to need to bounce his body off of everyone and everything to figure out where his body is in space and time.  Everyone and everything doesn't always appreciate this method.  His volume control button is broken...or perhaps we haven't found it yet.  If there is any sugar in the house he will do anything to get it.  He will wake up in the middle of the night and sneak and steal.  The results are evident hours later when he is unable to control his body.  It is like an addict looking for his next fix.  And he is not at all pleasant when on his "drug".  He becomes more physically imposing and louder.  But there is one thing...

Sometimes, when parents have children that excel at being over the top challenging, we have to find that "one thing" we can cling to that brings us hope.  With all the behavior we have to try and work throughout each day, my son can have a very giving heart when it comes to his money.  Last night he found some of his change left over from allowance.  He saw the little Food for the Hungry box we get at the beginning of each Lent (and generally don't turn in until the following Lent!).  He took his money and without hesitation put the rest of his allowance into the box.  He has taken toys and money his brothers leave out and tried to make them his own. He has shown up with things from school that obviously belonged to someone else just because couldn't control the temptation to acquire it.  He has NEVER tried to take money from that box.  He is always excited when he can add something to it and loves to pick it up to see how heavy it is getting.  

My child regularly brings me to tears because of his behavior, and even sometimes when I just think of the long long road ahead of both of us, but this time the tears were because of a sweet selfless gesture.  Sometimes it's that "one thing" that makes all the difference.