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I have a daughter who has autism

My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible

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‘I have a daughter who has autism. She was born with learning disabilities, epilepsy, ADHD, everything under the sun. I began to notice blank looks at the age of eight or nine months. She didn’t respond to a smile.  

‘She’s 19 now. Then, it was quite uncommon for girls to have autism. Nobody thought it was ADHD and autism. When she was five years old, they realised that she wasn’t speaking at all. What I found more traumatic were the epilepsy seizures. It was so scary. You could be on the street, walking, and she would blank out and fall.  

‘I looked at her, and her friends, and I would cry and weep, and complain, and say, “Why me? The girl I always wanted, why must she be like this?”  

‘At that time, I read Psalm 139.13-16. It says you are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. This scripture has changed my faith and transformed my thinking. Every time I read it, it just makes me cry.  

‘It makes me cry because I see that God knit her together in my womb. There is nothing about my daughter that is news to God. I have to remind myself that, whatever I see externally, my daughter is fearfully and wonderfully made.  

‘It reassures me that God saw her unformed body. Every aspect of her life that looks unformed, that looks disabled, that isn’t normal, God saw it and still sees it.  

‘It’s changed my attitude. When I look at her now, I don’t see a child with disabilities, I see a child that God has ordained, a child that will live her full potential. This scripture has given me comfort.’ 

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