How can we best care for our son who struggles with schizophrenia?

What strikes me about this question is that at the core, it's a question about shepherding. And one place to go is just to think about general principles about shepherding. For example, let's say that the most general way that we can think about shepherding is how do you know the person in front of you? You want be a student; who they are, their gifts, their assets, but also, their limitations and their struggles. And for somebody who's struggling with schizophrenia, this is gonna be a major part of their life and it's gonna be really important to understand that well. So that may include some type of education, just gathering data about the nature of schizophrenia and how it shows up. And then in particular, how it shows up in your son. But, when we think about shepherding and when we think about understanding some of these limitations, it really does open the door for compassion, and it opens the door for mercy, and it opens the door to distinguish between, let's say suffering and willful foolishness or sin.

So if it's general shepherding, we can also think about more specific shepherding. And with schizophrenia, an individual who's suffering with this affliction's gonna need help. They're going to need an advocate, somebody to help them walk through life because there is a way in which the symptoms of schizophrenia compromise a person's ability to do things that they'd like to be able to do, want to be able to do, feel like they should. So somebody who's an advocate helps them with their schedule, pursue a resource and support groups, walk alongside them in this area. And then another really important way to shepherd your son, or anybody, is how do you include them into your world, some of the mundane things, even of life. Schizophrenia is an excluding type of affliction and it isolates, so bringing them in can be extremely beneficial to just about anything of daily life. And then lastly, you, as caregivers are the conduits of God's care. You are gonna be the one who shepherds in the same way that you are shepherded by your Father.