Grief and Disability
from Matthew Mooney on the podcast
When a family receives a diagnosis—when they learn their child has a disability—grief often follows.
Matthew and Ginny Mooney define grief as:
“when the reality of life does not meet the expectations that you had.”
Grief shows up in the gap between what you expected… and what actually is.
That gap can be painful. We must have grace and tenderness for families in that space of grief. As friends, as a community—we come alongside them in love.
BUT this needs to be said:
The world should never grieve our children.
Our communities do not have the right to expect who our children “should” be. Instead…
The responsibility of our churches and of our society and of our cultures—when they meet our children—is:
- to embrace them
- to provide them whatever support they need
- to meet them just as they are.
TO OUR COMMUNITIES:
Our children are not less.
Our children are not tragedies.
They are not yours to grieve.
They are yours to love and welcome and support.
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