Welcome every one. Happy Martin Luther King Day. What an inspiring man Martin Luther King was. Here are a few of my Favorite quotes from Martin Luther for you in honor of today.“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character that is the goal of education.”“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”“I have a dream... that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”“Life’s most persistent and urgent question: What are you doing for others?”“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools”These are great quotes to remind us of the great Dr Martin Luther King. I know that changing perception has been a challenge since the days on MLK. I see this in Special needs ministry. While I’m thankful that things are changing, perceptions are still not what we would hope they would be.

A story that I read this morning about a young boy with autism went to see Santa. The boy was enjoying the lights and the snow man as he waited to see Santa. He was excited and flapping his hands and vocalizing when people started noticing the young boy. As they progressed in the line, the young boy took a seat on a bench off to the side of the line.A young girl who was curious about the young boy came and sat by the boy and said hello to him. The mother of the boy could feel the mother of the girl zoning in. The mother of the girl came and got her and told her not to sit there. The mother of the boy was heart broken.It is wonderful to see children without special needs engaging with those that do. I have had students venture into my class where we serve students with special needs and parents have can in and told them that they had to leave. That this was not their class. Many of them the peer age of those that were in the class. As we have events throughout the year, my hope for our faith community is less of “us versus them” and more us supporting one another.

To learn more about what we do here at Steps Care Please check out our website at Stepscare.orgWe are a 501 c 3 nonprofit that runs on the financial support our listeners and those that we serve. If you are interested in getting involved with what we do or want to give financially feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected]. Donations can be made over at the website or you may send a check to PO BOX 1134 Bentonville, AR 72712. We look forward to hearing from you. See you next Monday.