Need advice for son with Asperger's

[Katzie]

Greetings,

I have a 19 year old son who has Asperger's syndrome which is an autistic spectrum disorder. He started out completely autistic but through the proper schooling and behavior modification and much prayer and belief that the Lord could help him overcome his obstacles, he went from a nonspeaking somewhat violent child to a very intelligent young man. He was mainstreamed in school in 3rd grade and was always on the honor roll. If you met him you would never think there was anything wrong with him other then he might seem a bit shy.

Aspergers people are very intelligent, very intellectual, very logical and love to learn in general. Their weakness is in social skills and communication. My son has no social life at all. We are currently working with an agency to find him a job and he will receive training to help him with social skills. He is also taking some college courses on line.

He does not believe in God because he says it doesn't make sense. I raised him as a Christian. Read the Bible to him as a child, gave him a childrens Bible to read as well. He doesn't remember much of his childhood because his brain changed as he went through the process of going from being very autistic to a higher level of functioning.

I have been praying about this a lot and I would like to ask him to read some of the Bible. I tried asking him to read the Bible and handed it to him and he said "no thanks". LOL Well, it is a rather large and long book and I'd say the same thing if I wasn't interested. So, I thought perhaps if I just asked him to read say Genesis and Exodus and then give me his opinion on those books then maybe he'd be willing or even if I asked him to do a summary. He loves intellectual challenges so I am trying to approach this from his point of view.

My questions are what books in the Bible should I suggest he read to give him the information he needs to know without having him read the entire Bible? As we all know a lot of the books in the Bible are telling us the same thing just from different people. So, I want him to read the books that will give him the story without being repetitive. Does that make sense?

Also, if anyone knows of any books that would be helpful for someone like my son to read, I'd be very appreciative to know about them as well.
Please pray for my son and I thank you all in advance for whatever help you can give me.

God Bless,
Katzie

 

[ladylovesJesus]

I think listening to the Bible on line brings it alive more. It is good to hear sounds. Blue Letter Bible has this facility. Scroll down the main page and you will see how you can hear it on MP3 format. You can hear what Jesus went through then too. I think there are 3 versions you can choose from.

God bless

LLJ :rainbow: :rose:

 

[Br. Bear]

Greetings Sister Katzie,

Gospel of John.

Proverbs.

Romans.

Corinthians.

I would start with John. Then book by book go through the New Testament.

Definitely John.

LLJ's suggestion is good, too. Also available is recordings on audio tape or CD.

Johnny Cash did a video, Gospel Road.

Best of all is your life.... let your son read that...... ask Him if he sees anything different about you compared with the average person out there.... and ask him why he thinks that is.

Bless you.... shall be praying Katzie ....><>

Br. Bear

 

[Anneke]

Katzie, all you can do is keep on LIVING Jesus and praying for him. I have no real advice to offer, but just ((HUGS))

 

[Yeshualives]

Dear Katzie,

As I read your post I wasn't sure of which books to recommend, but I've been watching The Way of the Master on television and think their approach, which is different, may help your son. They have books and tracts and tv programmes which are interesting to watch - basically they address a person's conscience and effectively bypass a person's intellectual questions although often they do respond to questions with interesting answers. Everyone has a conscience which helps them know right from wrong. The Way of the Master teaches that God speaks to us through our conscience and by addressing a person's conscience you can share the gospel with them in a way they can understand.

However, i realise it can be important to address some of those intellectual questions too - Way of the Master have printed a conversation between an evolutionist and Ray Comfort, one of their team, so that people can see for themselves the kind of arguments that there are. Since I have questions from time to time that come up, I've found a Creationist magazine interesting - I think it was published by Answers in Genesis. Also, as i'm writing, I remember that I've found watching Christian films helpful with my own son, who has yet to make a commitment - the Nativity story was good.

In addition, here in the UK I went to an Alpha course run by the church where I am now at and found it an excellent way to get to know people and a safe place to ask questions and hear other people ask questions and hear honest answers.

God bless,

Yeshualives x

 

[Holly Hobbie]

Br, Bear beat me too it I was going to suggest many of those books.

I am right where you were when your son was little......I have 2 autistic children ages 6 and 8 that are non verbal ,my 8yr old is extreemly violent towards himself and starting to be towards us.

I am glad to hear that your son was able to come out of it,

 

[lisa18360]

hi i also have a son who has aspergers ,he is 10 ,my husband also has aspergers he is 49,my son was saved when he was 8 yrs old ,we were going through a very bad time in our lives and that when i found god , and was saved , my son saw me get a stength and commented on it , i said you can have this strenght too , he asked me how ,i said my strength comes from jesus all you have to do is ask him to come into your life ,so he laid on the bed and did just that .im not joking i saw the spirit go into him there and then !! he lay there smiling and i said can you feel him in you and my little boy at 8 yr old told me yes he could !!!
that is where he will not lose his faith now because he got jesus as a feeling so he knows jesus is real .
on the other side my husband !!! well totally different story , he could see a change in me and did ask jesus into his life ,but says that he did believe in god but since going to church it has totally confused him ,now my husband wont attend church , but still says that there is a god .
my husband is a good man and i know that god knows his heart and will judge him accordingly .
i think for your son maybe just to simply get him to read the sinners prayer god knows his heart and will im sure understand him.
as you will know from experience everything has to be black and white ,no grey areas will be acknowledged .the simpler the better.
blessings to your family
love lisa

 

[Boanerges]

Katzie, I am praying God give you wisdom in dealing with your son. Love him and be there for him, one day life will put him in just the right place to realize his need for God.

As far as books of the Bible you have some excellent suggestions already. If you have a choice keep him on the New Testament were he can see Christ revealed.

Many blessings in Jesus Name,
brother Larry.

 

[SpiritLedEd]

My questions are what books in the Bible should I suggest he read to give him the information he needs to know without having him read the entire Bible? As we all know a lot of the books in the Bible are telling us the same thing just from different people. So, I want him to read the books that will give him the story without being repetitive. Does that make sense?

Katzie, your son is going through the independent stage that all teens go through. But, the situation is exacerbated by his Asperger's Syndrome. He's discovered an exciting world in the arena of intellectual pursuit that you and I cannot fathom.You will not be able to force or manipulate him into reading anything he doesn't want to read or go anywhere he doesn't want to go. Nor is it healthy for you to try. Scary as it is, its time for you to stop thinking of him as being dependent on you in all things.

Let God be God in his life. Pray for his salvation. Work on learning to listen to God's voice and hear His promptings as to what to do and when to do it. And finally, take the message of Mk 11:22-24 NIV to heart. Paste those verses on your bathroom mirror so you see them often. Memorize the citation if you can. God wants him saved more than you do and I believe that, in the fullness of time, your son will be saved through your faith and prayer, lots of prayer.

SLE

 

[Katzie]

Thank you all for your recent posts to my question asked in August 2008.

SLE - God has taught me exactly what you have said. I know God wants him saved and I believe the Lord will bring him to the place he needs to be to receive Him.
Over the past 6 months my son has witnessed his sister being delivered out of addiction and being a spirit filled on fire for Jesus Christian again and that in itself has opened him up.
I know God is using our lives and our experiences to show my son how amazing God is.

Lisa - I did all of that stuff with my son when he was young. I read the Bible to him every night, I gave him a children's Bible. We prayed together and it was easy when he was young. Once he turned into a teenager he wanted to learn things on his own. He is now 20.....time does fly.......and he amazes me with his knowledge. So, it's in God's hands, whom I know I can trust!!!!!!!

Praise God and thankyou ALL for your prayers and support!!!!!!!!!
Kathy

 

[SpiritLedEd]

SLE - God has taught me exactly what you have said. I know God wants him saved and I believe the Lord will bring him to the place he needs to be to receive Him.Over the past 6 months my son has witnessed his sister being delivered out of addiction and being a spirit filled on fire for Jesus Christian again and that in itself has opened him up. I know God is using our lives and our experiences to show my son how amazing God is.

Katzie,

You've no idea how much I needed to see this message today. Praise God! Please post your story in the Testimonies forum. O.K.?

SLE

 

[Gracealone]

Awesome story, and know Gods name will be glorified through your Son.

Praying he will come to know Jesus as Savior, and in his weakness Gods
strength will be made perfect......we have a wonderful Savior .

God bless you both.

 

[Etienne Marais]

I understand. I also have Asperger and I know facts about it. The facts that I know is as follow. People with Asperger is very sensitive for noise and sharp light. This is exactly my situation. If you need prayers I will pray that God will help you and your son.

 

[Katzie]

Greetings,

I have a 19 year old son who has Asperger's syndrome which is an autistic spectrum disorder. He started out completely autistic but through the proper schooling and behavior modification and much prayer and belief that the Lord could help him overcome his obstacles, he went from a nonspeaking somewhat violent child to a very intelligent young man. He was mainstreamed in school in 3rd grade and was always on the honor roll. If you met him you would never think there was anything wrong with him other then he might seem a bit shy.

Aspergers people are very intelligent, very intellectual, very logical and love to learn in general. Their weakness is in social skills and communication. My son has no social life at all. We are currently working with an agency to find him a job and he will receive training to help him with social skills. He is also taking some college courses on line.

He does not believe in God because he says it doesn't make sense. I raised him as a Christian. Read the Bible to him as a child, gave him a childrens Bible to read as well. He doesn't remember much of his childhood because his brain changed as he went through the process of going from being very autistic to a higher level of functioning.

I have been praying about this a lot and I would like to ask him to read some of the Bible. I tried asking him to read the Bible and handed it to him and he said "no thanks". LOL Well, it is a rather large and long book and I'd say the same thing if I wasn't interested. So, I thought perhaps if I just asked him to read say Genesis and Exodus and then give me his opinion on those books then maybe he'd be willing or even if I asked him to do a summary. He loves intellectual challenges so I am trying to approach this from his point of view.

My questions are what books in the Bible should I suggest he read to give him the information he needs to know without having him read the entire Bible? As we all know a lot of the books in the Bible are telling us the same thing just from different people. So, I want him to read the books that will give him the story without being repetitive. Does that make sense?

Also, if anyone knows of any books that would be helpful for someone like my son to read, I'd be very appreciative to know about them as well.
Please pray for my son and I thank you all in advance for whatever help you can give me.

God Bless,
Katzie

I am quoting myself because it's hard to believe it's been a little over a year since I wrote this post and God has done wonderful things in my son's life.

My son has now been working for a year. He started out at Circuit City and as everyone knows, CC went bankrupt and closed, but my son was kept on until the last day and he did attend the party they had which was his first Social event. In less then a month Project Hire got him a job at Stop and Shop within walking distance to our house. He likes his job and he has made several friends and has now gone to a few events with co-workers.

He enrolled in College and started full time in Sept. and his boss worked out a schedule for him at work around his school schedule. His social skills have improved a lot and he is very well liked by his co-workers.

He did read a book I gave him called "More Then a Carpenter" by Josh McDowell. He also has been reading "Evidence That Demands a Verdict". He also ended up having to take a Philosophy class because it was the only class that had an opening left at the time he needed to take an elective. So, he's learning a lot about the history of the Churches right now.

He has also witnessed and continues to witness the amazing transformation his sister has been going through being delivered from addiction. She has been taking "Steps to Freedom" classes at our Church. Her and I are also attending another Bible Study called "A Hear ABlaze" by John Bevere. My son is seeing that the more she stays focused on God the better her life has been going on top of her deliverance from Addiction.

He has seen a major transformation in me over the past couple of years in my total trust in God and no longer worrying about things anymore. He has seen our dog get healed. Our dog has Chronic Renal Failure and he was in bad shape with a kidney infection, crystals in his urine, he lost 5 lbs(that's 5 from 18, he only weighs 13 lbs now). He wouldn't eat anything, he was throwing up bile, he was shivering all the time and he had a severe reaction to the antibiotic. Things looked bad for him. So, I just layed my hands on him and I prayed and still do. After his being off the antibiotic for a week I took him back to the Vet for a recheck because the Vet really thought we were going to have to give him IV antibiotics. His infection was gone, the crystals were gone, which could only have happened by God healing him. Long story short....6 mons later and he is still doing very well and my son knows it is a miracle.

God absolutely knows what my son needs to see, hear and witness and I am completely persuaded that God will complete the job He has begun in him. My son is a unique individual and I praise God everyday for his uniqueness and his abilities. He will be 21 next month and he's never been on a date or under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, nor does he have the desire, he doesn't smoke......in some ways it's kind of funny because he wouldn't have to change his life style to become a Christian.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has contributed to this topic. Thank you to all of you who pray for him and God Bless all of you who also have Aspergers. I pray for you too and if anyone ever wants to talk to me about Autism because that's how my son started out being extremely autistic but over the years his brain developed and changed and that really bad behavior went away.

There isn't anything God can't heal or help us with if we just ask, believe and persevere in our faith and trust in Him!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Etienne Marais]

I am also 19 years old and I also have asperger.