Book Review: Bible Promises for Parents of Children with Special Needs

Book Cover

This book review is going to be a little bit different from previous ones, simply because it's not the type of book you read once, and then you leave it to move to the next one.  On the contrary, this is the type of book that you would want to keep within reach, going back to it again and again.

The story behind Bible Promises for Parents of Children with Special Needs and how it came into our hands may seem ordinary and normal, but I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened.

You see, my husband and I have been hosting weekly Bible studies in our home for the past 5 or so years, and recently we have had a little bit of reorganization with that.  I've mentioned before that we had a new pastor come into our church family in a previous book review, and he wanted to take us to a slightly different direction.

We have always been open about R's struggles with SPD, and now his diagnosis of autism, so it's no surprise that many of the people attending what we now call our LifeGroup are aware of what's been happening.  Another couple in our group is also going through something similar with their child with special needs, and we have been sharing back and forth how we've been feeling about our specific situations.

So when a mutual friend of ours and the other couple, who also is part of our LifeGroup, passed by just this past Sunday, she handed my husband a little book that she said she picked up from our local budget bookstore BOOKSALE.  She told us that while she was browsing through it, she felt it was something we needed to have.

And I thank God for this.

Amy E. Mason, author of this and several other books published by Tyndale House, is a wife and mother to two children, one with ADHD and autism.  She runs a website and blog chronicling her life with her two boys, and the challenges that come with parenting children with special needs.  You can read more about her via the link above.

The reason I state that this review will be a bit different because this book in itself is a bit different.  As I said earlier, it's not the type of book you read only once then forget about it.  It's the kind of book that you want to carry with you all the time, for you to quickly look at when certain emotions start to overwhelm you.

You see, parenting a child with special needs, it's not like you can just go on autopilot and do it like what everyone else does.  I don't mean that parenting a neurotypical child is easy.  Even so, one still needs to be an intentional and conscious parent.  But for a child with special needs, you need to be even more so, and sometimes your patience will be tested, nerves will be frayed, and limits will be pushed.

Special needs parenting can be a day-to-day thing, and the emotions can be like a huge roller coaster with all its highs and lows.  And there are times when you feel you want to get off... but you just can't.

Because parenting is a full-time thing, special needs or not.

And Mason understood that, being a special needs parent herself.  That's why I love this book.  It's arranged by topic that's easily searchable via the table of contents, in alphabetical order.  Under each topic, Mason lists several Bible verses that pertain to the topic or emotion cited, along with a little paragraph meant for reflection on the part of the reader.

If you're familiar with what Christians call devotional material, this is very similar to that, and I think this can be treated like one of those, only it's not constrained by dates or calendars.  This makes the book an easy thing for one to pick up anytime, search for a topic and read the verses and be assured by the promises.

If you'd like to read more about how this book came to be written, the author has posted a blog entry on her website detailing her journey.

I'm not giving this book a rating because I don't think it'll adequately encapsulate my feelings and thoughts regarding how comforting it is to read the promises God made in Bible for situations such as this.  Also, it's because I'm not done reading it yet.

Bible Promises for Parents of Children with Special Needs can be acquired via the following stores:

• Tyndale House Publishers - US$6.99 (PHP357.47) for paperback
• ChristianBook.com - US$6.99 (PHP357.47) for paperback, US$5.59 (PHP285.87) for e-book
• Amazon - US$5.61 (PHP286.90) for paperback, US$5.33 (PHP272.58) for e-book
• Book Depository - US$8.68 (PHP443.90) for paperback, free delivery inclusive of price
• Google Books- US$4.54 (PHP232.24) for e-book