As you probably know, I taught special education. For several years I had a student that I will call Janet. When I first met her Janet was an 8 year old severely autistic child with major behavior issues. Before she became my student she was being considered for a residential placement. Janet would destroy a room. She was constant motion, tearing everything off the walls, climbing bookcases with no fear, grabbing any and all food…….She was pretty much kept in a chair with restraints both in school and at home. Her safety was a major concern. When I took the class my first thought was, “how can she learn to behave out of the chair if you don’t get her out of the chair”. So my 3 aides and I took turns working with her, constantly holding her hand. She would jerk away, do flips, suddenly drop to the floor. Our bodies were feeling the brunt, but we thought we saw a slight improvement. I could go on with techniques we used but let me just say that things were maybe getting better until……….

One day she came to school and started screaming-about every 10 seconds, very rhythmic, very ear piercing, VERY annoying! We took turns with her. Sort of a tag team. We tried everything that is fairly common with autistic students-nothing, nada, zilch. We were frustrated, exasperated, at our wits end. One day I sent the rest of the class out into the school halls. Janet and I sat in a darkened room, squished in an overstuffed chair, my arms hugging her. Her screaming was constant. It took every ounce of control for me not to shake the daylights out of her-”Janet STOP, you’re frustrated, we’re frustrated. Just stop screaming and we will all be happy, Don’t you understand!”-I felt like saying and doing.

I couldn’t take much more. I had tried every conventional and unconventional technique I could think of. I was out of ideas. There was only one thing I hadn’t tried. As she screamed, I started praying. “Dear God, give me one thing to help this child”, “Dear God, I just need one thing”. “Please help me”. “Give me just one thing”, over and over and over. As she screamed, I continued to pray. We sort of got into a rhythm. After about 10-15 minutes she was still screaming and I was still frustrated. I thought, well He has got to have heard me by now, I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I had prayed all I could pray. I had said it all. So now what do I do………

I decided to sing, “Old McDonald had a farm”. You know it has enough verses to go on for days. If nothing else it might help keep my sanity. I started singing. After about one verse I noticed that Janet was not screaming. OK, a coincidence. I stopped singing; she started screaming; I sang again, she stopped. I played around with this for a few minutes and realized that as long as I kept singing she STOPPED screaming.

HE gave me ONE thing.

Singing and songs became part of Janet’s curriculum. We used recording devices, singing, anything we could think of. I found a music therapist who gave us great ideas. Janet’s behavior started changing. She was happier, we were happier, and she was now able to start a program that made a big difference in her behavior and ability to learn.

I truly know that my prayer was answered. It wasn’t a major thing, it didn’t change the world, but it made a difference to me. And it definitely made a difference to Janet.

I apologize for such a long story. But, I will never forget it.

Thanks for the reminder, Aaron!

Thanks, AP, for the challenge to pray specifically!

Excerpt from Journal Entry #4
“I pray for the colleges across the world father, that you would start a radical movement, that these coming generations would know you and stand for you”
(Um.. have you heard about Aletheia Tampa yet? Not the only college movement, I know… just saying!)

ha, love it.

And seeing an album released four months later.

God is so good.

Love you buddy!!