Last night, Matthew and I ended up at the dinner table alone. Peter has strep and didn’t feel like eating and Daddy had taken Samuel to basketball practice. We were talking about school and how his day had been really hard. After getting all checkmarks the day before, yesterday he only got three (out of a possible 10, I think). That means he got written up for the other 7 “periods” of the day. He seemed so discouraged, and suddenly I thought of something.

I don’t know where or from whom I have heard this – probably more than one teacher/preacher over the years – but there is a passage from 2 Corinthians that talks about how God’s glory shines through us all the more because we are “cracked pots” – i.e., broken vessels. Here’s the actual Scripture:

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; (2 Cor. 4:6-7, NASB)

Here it is easier to understand in the New Living Translation:

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

So I was explaining to Matthew how we are confident that God is going to work all of this together for His glory. Then I explained, as best I could, the lesson contained in these verses – that if we were perfect, God’s glory wouldn’t be able to shine through us! And, in typical Matthew fashion, he responded by saying “Maybe that’s why I’ve been having so many problems at school, so that I will get famous and then when I STOP having problems, everyone will know!”

I had to laugh at his thinking, that being bad at school would make him “famous” but I think he caught the truth of what I was saying. Now I just have to hope that he doesn’t spout it back to a teacher right after he’s done something really bad, like slap her on the bottom (and yes, that did happen).

For those who might be curious where we are in the process, we are wading through all the paperwork and trying to learn as much as we can, as quickly as we can. We met with the psychologist who specializes in autism yesterday for our parent interview. Matthew has started Special Education, but just this week so nothing to really report there. He did have one really great day this week, and I believe it had a lot to do with what was supposed to be punishment – they put him on a bench during recess, sitting with a teacher, and then at lunch, they put him at a table alone and gave him a book to read. And he got all his checkmarks – no acting out at all! But the rest of the week more than made up for it. Anyway, we are taking Matthew for his testing with the independent psychologist next week, then the school autism team is supposed to be evaluating him over the course of the next few months, so we expect to have some answers soon. Thank you for all your prayers – I know God is up to something and I can’t wait to see His plan unfold!