{"id":1783,"date":"2011-10-04T01:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-10-04T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2011-10-04T01:17:06","modified_gmt":"2011-10-04T05:17:06","slug":"all-that-glitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html","title":{"rendered":"All that glitters"},"content":{"rendered":"

For several reasons, I hated when\u00a0our children got their driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 Of course, there was the problem of safety.\u00a0Now the\u00a0crazy teenage idiots driving wildly through our neighborhood were my children.\u00a0\u00a0But the other reason was that\u00a0I learned so much about my\u00a0offsprings when I was taking them to\u00a0and from school or driving them and their friends to church.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When they were young, I learned to keep my mouth shut and listen when I was taking them\u00a0and their friends to appointments.\u00a0 It was as though they forgot\u00a0I was in the car; and they talked freely about any number of interesting things.\u00a0 When they became teenagers, this was the one time that they would openly talk with me within hearing distance.<\/p>\n

Transporting the members of Special Gathering is part of what we do.\u00a0 Most of our members who are mentally challenged do not drive.\u00a0 Therefore, operating van routes\u00a0is normal operation for ministries who work with individuals who are intellectually disabled.\u00a0 I actually love transporting our folks because as it was\u00a0with my\u00a0children,\u00a0there is a breaking down of barriers that happens when you are required to be in the close confines of a vehicle with a group of people.<\/p>\n

One morning as I picked up the members of our choir, I was excited.\u00a0 The official NFL Super Bowl Blog site had picked up one of the blogs I had written and they were recommending it.\u00a0 The words, \u201cexcellent blog\u201d\u00a0 left a thrilling, acidic taste in my throat.\u00a0 After\u00a0two\u00a0of our sports fans got on the van, I told them\u00a0about the blog being recommended by the NFL blog\u00a0site.\u00a0 They barely blinked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Later in our journey,\u00a0I remembered\u00a0the missions conference I had attended at Riverside Church in Sebastian on Friday night.\u00a0 Reinhard Bonnke, the world-renowned evangelist, had been the guest speaker.\u00a0 We had sat back to back at different tables during the conference meal.\u00a0 After he spoke and returned to his seat, I was able to\u00a0thank him, shake his hand and introduce myself.<\/p>\n

After picking everyone up, I got a phone call.\u00a0 When\u00a0we had concluded our business, I told my caller about the NFL Blog site.\u00a0 Looking through the rear view mirror, I saw one of passengers, Steve, yawn.\u00a0 Then I told my caller about meeting Rev. Bonnke.\u00a0\u00a0Steve sat up.\u00a0 He was suddenly listening, interested and excited.\u00a0 As I hung up the phone, he asked,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou met Reinhard Bonnke?\u201d\u00a0 There was an undeniable tone of astonished admiration in his voice.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t believe that YOU met Reinhard Bonnke!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know who Reinhard Bonnke is?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I know who he is.\u201d \u00a0There was a tone of disappointed unbelief in Steve\u2019s voice.\u00a0\u00a0How could I\u00a0consider him ignorant of who this godly man is.\u00a0 \u201cHe is the evangelist who has led millions of people to Jesus in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

As\u00a0stirred as I was with the events of the weekend, I was much more\u00a0amazed with Steve.\u00a0 Once again, my members had shown me what\u00a0is important and valid in this life.\u00a0 A few NFL fans reading the blog is interesting but meeting\u00a0the man of God is astounding.<\/p>\n

What have you learned about your family members as you transported them?\u00a0 Better yet, what have they learned about you?\u00a0 And the best, what great life lesson have you learned from<\/strong> them during your time in a vehicle?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For several reasons, I hated when\u00a0our children got their driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 Of course, there was the problem of safety.\u00a0Now the\u00a0crazy teenage idiots driving wildly through our neighborhood were my children.\u00a0\u00a0But the other reason was that\u00a0I learned so much about my\u00a0offsprings when I was taking them to\u00a0and from school or driving them and their friends to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,20,3,182,287,186,49,16,4,41],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,715,701,689,293,700],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-disability","category-faiths","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-reinhard-bonnke","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nAll that glitters - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All that glitters - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For several reasons, I hated when\u00a0our children got their driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 Of course, there was the problem of safety.\u00a0Now the\u00a0crazy teenage idiots driving wildly through our neighborhood were my children.\u00a0\u00a0But the other reason was that\u00a0I learned so much about my\u00a0offsprings when I was taking them to\u00a0and from school or driving them and their friends to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-04T05:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-04T05:17:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/5778661-driver-driving-car-with-sunglasses-on-male-inside-vehicle-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"All that glitters - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"All that glitters - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"For several reasons, I hated when\u00a0our children got their driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 Of course, there was the problem of safety.\u00a0Now the\u00a0crazy teenage idiots driving wildly through our neighborhood were my children.\u00a0\u00a0But the other reason was that\u00a0I learned so much about my\u00a0offsprings when I was taking them to\u00a0and from school or driving them and their friends to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-10-04T05:00:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-04T05:17:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/5778661-driver-driving-car-with-sunglasses-on-male-inside-vehicle-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html","name":"All that glitters - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/5778661-driver-driving-car-with-sunglasses-on-male-inside-vehicle-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-04T05:00:16+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-04T05:17:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/5778661-driver-driving-car-with-sunglasses-on-male-inside-vehicle-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/5778661-driver-driving-car-with-sunglasses-on-male-inside-vehicle-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/all-that-glitters.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"All that glitters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}