{"id":15618,"date":"2025-07-30T07:47:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=15618"},"modified":"2025-07-30T07:47:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:47:00","slug":"a-few-minutes-with-josh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=15618","title":{"rendered":"a few minutes with Josh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today we sit with my now 23 year old son, who is gifted in many ways, and special in his special needs. Let me first share how Josh describes himself: \u201cI am a pretty fun, hardworking man on a mission. I like the Bengals, spicy food, and playing video games \u2014 especially Star Wars.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to sit down with Josh\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Josh, welcome back. You know I get great feedback every time you speak on the Intramuralist. Thanks for being here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you. I am honored to be here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You told me you have something specific you wanted to talk about today. What\u2019s that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLearning to accept people for who they are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A question first\u2026 why is this topic so important to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause God taught us to accept each other for who they are. And sometimes we have trouble finding it. You also have to accept<\/em> yourself <\/em><\/strong>for you who are. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve had to do. I\u2019ve had trouble sometimes in accepting both me and other people for who they are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I appreciate you being so honest and transparent. Sounds like this is an area in which you\u2019ve grown. So let\u2019s get after it a bit. What does it mean to \u201caccept people for who they are\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good question. That\u2019s a really good question.\u201d
<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me help . When you accept someone for who they are, does it change how you see them or talk to them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah. It could be both. When you accept someone for who they are, you see them as friends, people that you care about and try to trust even if they don\u2019t deserve it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How then do you talk to them or about them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen with them, you ask them questions. You ask them what they think \u2014 don\u2019t tell them what to think. It\u2019s the not judging a book by its cover thing. It\u2019s no judgment and asking questions no matter what they look like or sound like. Sometimes it\u2019s hard to listen to them, but you have to.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do you have to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s being respectful. God teaches us to love and be respectful to one another. No matter what.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there ever a time not to love or respect in your opinion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. But there are struggles along the way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes I really don\u2019t want to love them because I don\u2019t like them or what they think. Sometimes they\u2019re disrespectful; they don\u2019t do what God teaches.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is that what you\u2019ve most learned \u2014 to love and respect any way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes. Love and respect them for who they are. If they\u2019re weird or crazy or think differently, it doesn\u2019t matter. God demonstrates his love for us so that we can learn to love all others. I have trouble with that sometimes, but I keep trying because it\u2019s the right thing to do. The right thing matters.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me go back a little to where we started. Why did you want to talk about this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause we all need to learn to accept.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would happen if we all learned that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen we can teach our kids as well, and people will get along better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think we have trouble now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all do, every single day. But it goes back to being the right thing to do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for encouraging us today, Josh. This is good. Anything else you want to say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you for spending time with me on this blog, because it goes out to everyone who\u2019s having trouble accepting. I want people to make life easier through love and respect.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks, Josh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlways.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR & Josh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we sit with my now 23 year old son, who is gifted in many ways, and special in his special needs. Let me first share how Josh describes himself: \u201cI am a pretty fun, hardworking man on a mission. I like the Bengals, spicy food, and playing video games \u2014 especially Star Wars.\u201d Time … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “a few minutes with Josh”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15618"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15622,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15618\/revisions\/15622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}