Please follow the link below entitled “view original post” (in red) and read the article originally posted on restministries.com. You don’t have to suffer from a chronic illness or disability to gain something useful from this post. The truth is, we all need help at some point in time.

Today, I met with a Benefits Protection & Planning Representative for the state of Arkansas. Dealing with SSI and Medicaid is both humbling, anxiety inducing and confusing. I am so thankful for Jerry Clawson who is committed to helping me safely navigate the complexities of available services. Making the wrong choice can cause your child to loose much needed medical benefits or financial assistance for adaptive equipment, among other things.

Jerry may simply be doing his job, but he doesn’t perform it that way. He’s been incredibly responsive and understanding. Today, he allowed me to stop by without an appointment. He didn’t have to do that, but I’m so thankful and glad he did because my PTSD, depression and anxiety issues leave me struggling to do the simplest of tasks. I simply can’t make myself place phone calls and schedule appointments. It’s easiest for me if I can make must needed stops after I’ve already been required to leave the house for some reason. And that’s what happened today. I called Jerry and he made himself available. I’m sure it wasn’t a big deal for him, but it was huge for me.

I’ve had the signed documentation ready for him for approximately a month and I knew if I didn’t meet with him today, it could be quite some time before I managed to make myself try again. I don’t understand the psychology behind my issues, and I’m extremely embarrassed by the fact that simple tasks have grown monumental to me, but, I can’t simply make up my mind to do things and get it done. Instead, I’m trying to work with what I am able to do and hope the rest will resolve itself in the near future.

Last summer I attended College Bound Arkansas with my daughter, Gracen. It’s a program that prepares kids with disabilities for the transition to college. I met numerous parents during the course of our stay and discovered that they are all struggling to find services for their children. It’s a prime example of the blind leading the blind. We don’t know what resources are available, who to ask, or how to find them and generally happen upon them by chance via a conversation with another parent, a specialist or a physical or occupational therapist. If you do find someone that can point you toward available services you are often handed an extensive list of providers and have to wade through the entire thing to find out exactly what services your child might qualify for. It’s overwhelming and frankly, parents (not just me)  get so confused, they simply quit and soldier on alone.

In the aftermath of the car collision that killed two of my daughters and left Gracen badly injured at a time when my husband was between jobs, we found ourselves needing to accept help in ways we’ve never needed to in the past. David and I were overwhelmed with gratitude and yet found ourselves uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of the equation in spite of our desperate needs. This is what the author of this blogpost, Shelly Hendricks had to say on the topic:

“We all want to give help. We want to be the answer to prayer. It makes us feel weak to accept help. It makes us feel hopeless to ask for it.

And yet, God has been convicting me.

Receiving is not passive.

Receiving is submitting. Accepting is playing an important part. Asking is admitting that you are just like the ones you’ve helped before. . . and will again, in small and big ways.”

 

See what else Shelly has to offer below.