My daughter struggles with RAD, which makes her unable or unwilling to trust. Her behavior shows it.
It’s not that she’s a bad kid. She isn’t. But she wants us to think she is.
And each and every day, my husband and I find consistent examples — some more glaring than others — of her unwillingness or inability to trust.
Last week, for example, she found herself in trouble because she took something she shouldn’t have and brought it to school in her backpack.
Why? Because she could. And she knew she’d get a rise out of us.
Bye, bye backpack.
Fast forward 24 hours and she and I are in the car. “Mom,” she says to me, “are there instances in the Bible where you can show me about how someone was not willing to trust?”
It was a teaching moment.
Without hesitation, I shared with her about Thomas and how he was unwilling to believe or trust that what the other disciples said was true — that Christ was alive again.
My daughter, almost a teenager, is at the point where she is almost beyond the point where some would say that she won’t be able to grow close to us.
Yet there are those precious moments where I see glimpses of hope, answers to prayer.
RAD is a hard road to go down. You open your heart to someone who is convinced that they are simply unworthy — and is bound and determined to convince you that they are right.
Never mind the fact that we are all of us broken people who are doing the best we can.
I love my daughter. But I literally cannot predict what is going to happen next. Some days are better than others.
I give thanks for the teaching moments.
