Clashing Isn't Always a Bad Thing

This is a story I wrote almost two years ago. My aunt Pat requested it back so here it is...

As my six year old Mikaela and I shopped for new shoes my stress began to build. Our trip to the mall had ensued promptly after a meeting with her teachers who asked me not to send her to school anymore wearing her most favorite pair of iridescent pink cowgirl boots. Mikaela has Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), a condition which largely affects fine and gross motor skills and also causes speech delays. The boots, as fabulous as they were, had not been offering her feet enough support. But worse, her teachers notified me was that they were causing her to trip and fall more frequently while at school. Immediately, I knew the change in shoes would not be an easy task as children with PDD often display many of the same traits as autistic children. My Mikaela, like many autistic children is quite obstinate to changes . Knowing this, I
had wearily prepared myself for what I knew would be the shoe shopping “Olympics”. As we walked the mall, like an athlete in training, I thought of everything I could to convince her a new pair of shoes was a good thing. We had already stopped at four places with no luck - none of the bribing or reasoning in my well prepared arsenal had worked. It was “Mikaela four - mom zip” and I was losing the game. Exhausted, I had presented what seemed like hundreds of different shoes and continually received firm “no’s”.

As I was beginning to feel there was no hope left, she found them. Twinkling like a beacon in the night, sat a pair of bright, red patent leather Mary Jane’s. The shoes sparkled under the fluorescent store lights like an obnoxious Christmas ornament. Mikaela's eye's lit up, she stood still, momentarily mesmerized. She quickly seemed to come to her senses, grabbed the box and running proudly towards me shouted “I want these!” I stood there in a state of panic, my mind scrambling to think of how I would talk her out of them. I prayed they didn't have her size but to my dismay they fit her like a glove. “What about these nice black ones, don’t you like these better?” I asked. “No way!” she insisted. I knew her mind had been made up and there was no chance I would change it. I had wanted to find her every day school shoes so I quickly took a mental inventory of Mikaela’s wardrobe. Thoughts of the fashion police knocking at my door immediately entered my mind. Practically everything in her wardrobe would clash with these red shoes. As I started to literally pull her away from the shoes, I stopped myself. They did have special insoles and that was good for supporting her feet. She also adored them and this would mean drama-free mornings for both of us. Logically it made sense but from a fashion sense they screamed NO! I finally conceded and bought her the shoes but not before checking the store over very thoroughly to make sure we couldn't’t find anything more fashionably versatile. As we walked out of the store I had to laugh, we had both won the game but only my Mikaela would cross the finish line in such a brilliantly shiny and bright red pair of shoes that glistened on her feet like Dorothy’s red ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz.
The next morning, I watched her proudly clip clop her way down our driveway to the school bus. Her blue eyes beamed and sparkled as her bus driver greeted her with “ooohs” and “ahhhs” at the sight of the new shoes which gleamed like Rudolph's red nose in the morning darkness. I turned around and walked back inside smiling. Seeing her so happy, I decided I was glad I that I bought them for her. At that moment, I was reminded of how God our Father does the very same for us. He delights in giving us good things and He desires to bless us abundantly. Psalm 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” Good things come in many forms and are not always material. I can’t help but imagine how God must smile and enjoy watching our joy when He gives us good things as I did with Mikaela. Remember that God does not promise to give us everything we think we should have. But what He does promise is not to
withhold anything that is permanently good for us. God will give us a way to walk along His path, but we must do the walking...even if in a bright red pair of shoes.