Your struggling child has the potential to leave a remarkable impact

Some would say that a child born healthy, with all the benefits of a loving, well-off family, will grow up to have a great life with significant influence. 

This isn’t always the case. Some children defy the odds, grow strong in the struggle that life throws them and leave a greater impact than ever expected. 

Don’t lose hope if your child is struggling. Their story is only beginning to be written.

Others grow up in ease, never struggling for anything. Like a tree grown behind the protection of a glasshouse, they are untested, and when exposed to the strong winds of adversity, they break. 

We don’t desire hard things, especially not for our children. We want them to thrive and be happy, and when they hurt, we hurt. But sometimes, they need to experience things that will grow them into stronger people. 

Don’t lose hope if your child is struggling. Just because things aren’t easy for them doesn’t mean they won’t have a great life and leave a lasting impact on those they come in contact with. 

Society’s way of gauging who has influence and who is expendable is deeply flawed, and individually we must take a stand to change this. The more people that stand together, the more we can sway opinions to value every human life, no matter their status or abilities.

I came across this write-up many years ago, and I hope you feel the full force of its impact as I did. It was written by Professor Jerome Lejeune, Nobel prize winner and discoverer of the gene for Down Syndrome.

Many years ago, my father was a Jewish physician in Braunau, Austria. On a particular day, two babies had been delivered by one of his colleagues. One was a fine, healthy boy with a strong cry. His parents were extremely proud and happy. The other was a little girl, but her parents were extremely sad, for she was a mongoloid (Down Syndrome) baby. I followed them both for almost fifty years. The girl grew up, living at home, and was finally destined to be the one who nursed her mother through a very long and lingering illness after a stroke. I do not remember her name. I do, however, remember the boy’s name. He died in a bunker in Berlin. His name was Adolf Hitler.