Member Voices
How Does My Life Fit in Heavenly Father’s Eternal Plan of Salvation?
As a mother of an autistic four-year-old girl, I have struggled to find answers to how I should help my daughter along the covenant path. Normally simple things like sitting still, observing reverence, or paying attention to the speakers are very hard for her to do. Without these in place, I have struggled to teach her many of the basic rules that lay a foundation to knowing and loving the Savior and the Lord’s purpose for us in this life.
I often wondered how I was to obey the Lord’s commandments to teach our children the gospel. So many of my favorite scriptures in relation to teaching the gospel sometimes became a sad reminder of what I am unable to do.
As time went by, I blamed myself and asked where I went wrong, and if Heavenly Father was unhappy with me.
Because of my daughter’s inability to observe reverence or to stay in a classroom for long, church attendance became a challenge for me. In the beginning, I thought that the days of sacrament meeting attendance were gone for me. I knew I couldn’t leave my child behind as my attendance was not complete without her; I needed her at my side.
I have kept pushing on, each week attending as much of the sacrament meeting as possible. I have prayed on my way to church that I would at least be able to partake of the sacrament before my daughter became too much of a distraction.
I’m grateful for the bishop’s encouragement and belief in my daughter’s ability to be able to settle down in a sacrament meeting. He didn’t judge me for not being able to get my daughter to be reverent all the time. I will never forget the day he assigned me to give a talk on the responsibility of a mother. I felt it was a role I had fallen very short on, but my bishop didn’t. On Mother’s Day, the bishop, knowing that I often had to leave church early, ran after me to ensure that he personally handed me my Mother’s Day card and gift. That deeply touched my heart.
I have come to feel the confirmation from the Holy Ghost that my daughter too, is a unique and loved spiritual daughter of God. I have learnt so much from her uniqueness. I have learnt to put all my trust in God, I have been humbled by her innocence and her zeal to keep learning and trying to do the simple things so many take for granted. She has taught me to be grateful for many small and simple things and to exercise faith in God and most importantly to have an eternal perspective. In more ways than one, she is such a big example of God’s eternal plan of salvation.
I am grateful for the boundless support and positive influence her father has been in her life, helping her walk along this path of the plan of salvation.
I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is the strength of parents, and that He endured all things, so that He may know how to comfort us. My prayer is that we all learn to walk the sometimes-lonely path back to our Heavenly Father while holding on to the iron rod amidst the mocking and laughter from the great and spacious building.