September 26, 2024
You may not even know what an ISP is unless you have a special needs child. ISP stands for Individual Support/Service Plan. An ISP meeting is held once a year to set goals, go over medical concerns, and just collect information so that anyone who supports the person with intellectual disabilities can take part in setting new goals and a plan to focus on those goals.
Missie had her ISP recently. Let me just say after 35+ years of ISPs she still hates them and in those 35+ years there might have been three that have ended on a good note. Missie is not a fan of attention, questions, or decisions, which are all part of an ISP. To say that I have to pray my way into and through an ISP is an understatement. However, I did start thinking about it and I feel like the Lord gave me some insight into why Missie might not be a fan.
First, an ISP is an “individual” plan. It is for that specific person and no one else. Every ISP is different – no two are alike even from year to year. Missie is 40 years old, and she is aware enough to know she is different but just not aware enough to figure out why. I don’t have an ISP, but I can understand why she doesn’t like them.
She doesn’t like being different. She’s not happy with the “individual” she is. She can look at the life her brother and sister have, and she knows her life is not like theirs. The trap of comparing, don’t we all fall into it at times? We compare how our life is turning out to someone else's. We compare someone else’s success against ours whether it be in a job, an income, a marriage, or just their life in general.
God has created us all – individually. We are all different. We all have a purpose. These are hard things for a special needs person to understand but honestly, they are hard for me to understand sometimes as well. I need to continually remind myself that my life, my journey, my progress, is specific to what God has for me as an individual. I can’t convey that message to Missie in a way she can understand, but I can strive to live my life so that I can model that for her.
The second word in an ISP is “support.” Missie doesn’t want to be supported. She, in her mind, thinks she can “do it herself.” It’s like a child that says, “I can do it myself and I don’t need your help.” However, as a parent you know that is not the case.
If I am being honest, I don’t like to be on the “support” end either. I like to be the giver of support, but it really is hard to be on the receiving end. Just like I have to “convince and persuade” Missie that she needs us, at times I am sure God has to convince and persuade me how much I need Him and others in my life.
An ISP builds on supports such as friendships, neighbors, and community, and we all need those supports. What in the world would I do without my family, friends, co-workers, and community? God puts those people in our lives to support us. I can’t convey to Missie the importance of these people in her life because she is not able to understand the concept, however, I can strive to model the need for and importance of all these people God places in my life for her to see.
The last word in an ISP is “plan.” The plan for an ISP is to set specific goals to achieve in areas such as socializing, verbalizing, and developing talents and skills that are specific to the individual. All of these things are SO hard for Missie. She is NOT social, does NOT know how to verbalize feelings or identify things that she would want to do or talents she has.
All of these things make a plan so hard to prepare for her and I can understand how frustrating it can be. I feel like I am on the opposite end. I make a plan and then am frustrated when the plan doesn’t go the way I thought it would. God is the only one who knows THE plan. Wayne and I have to trust God to lead us to make the best plan for Missie but really, I have to trust God to make the best plan for my life as well.
I can’t model frustration in a plan for Missie, I have to model trust! My job is to work to clarify choices that will put her on a pathway toward the best life that she would be able to live. I have to trust GOD to clarify and lead me in the choices I make to allow me to live the best life that HE would want me to live.
If you are reading this article today, please pray for Missie and all those who are helping her. Pray that I can help her understand that God made her a special individual, that there are people in her life who love her so much they want to support her, and that there is a plan for her life that God has made. Maybe we don’t just need to pray that for Missie but for each of us as well.
God has His own ISP for our lives, and we just have to be available daily to listen and follow. Be the best Individual that you can be. Offer Support to others and receive the support when it is offered to you. Trust the Plan - not your plan but the plan God has for your life. Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
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Jill Johnson, a staff member at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, finds spiritual applications in her everyday experiences as a wife, mother, grandmother and Georgian. She is available to speak to your church's women's gatherings. Reach her at jjohnson@gabaptist.org.
