Serving Those With Disabilities

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

1 Peter 4:10

 

While I was a youth leader, I thought it would be wise of me to take a job working inside of one of the High Schools where the students attended. I applied for one job, but when I went on the interview, they told me they were considering me for a teachers assistant position. This TA position would be with students who had disabilities. I spent about 10 minutes trying to explain that I was not qualified nor trained for that job to no avail. They were persistent and they hired me. I started the following week. I worked in this job for about 4 years and I have to be honest, I loved that job. I learned in that time that God gave me the special gift of carrying for those students and I felt blessed. I also got to see my daughters daily because they were peer helpers for students with disabilities.

 

In April of 2008, about 10 years after I left that job, I walked into a church and saw a girl with CP in a wheel chair. I walked up to her and asked her to help me find a book and she quickly told me she couldn’t help me. I didn’t accept her answer but insisted she tried and with that her dad heard me and walked over to meet me. He was impressed by my boldness and later told me that is when he fell in love with me. We married in September of 2009.

 

In July of 2011 my new husband suffered a serious heart attack and died. When I woke up I pulled him off the bed and started CPR. The paramedics arrived and were able to get his heart started. Gary was brought back, but he has an anoxic brain injury which is devastating. The list of lost cognitive skills is exhausting. He lived with me for about a year before I had to move him to assisted living.

 

In June of 2010 my grandson Mason was born and today he is in a special needs classroom in preschool. He has selective mutism and he is being tested for Autism. In December of 2011 my granddaughter Trinity was born, she has Apraxia of Speech and is being taught how to speak, and eat.

 

Sunday this group was together at a party. They all sat at the same table and ate pizza and drank juice. At one point Gary stole Trinity’s napkin, took it right out of her hand, because he wanted it. Trinity who has trouble speaking said, “Hey damma (grandma) Papa tole (stole) me nakin (napkin). She got a new one. Mason sat next to Papa, not speaking and eating his pizza, cheese only. Sauce all over his face and up his nose, happy as can be.

 

Later that night I lay in bed thanking God. For He prepared me and my daughters for the life He was going to give us. He also gave to us the gifts needed to be good moms and grandma’s to children with disabilities. He made me a good wife to care for a husband with a disability.
God is our Father and to us He gives good gifts. We are to use these gifts to serve others and we never know when we serve where that will lead us. Now many of you can say I served and it lead me to a hard life with disappointments. You would be wrong. I served and it trained me for a life filled with blessings.

I Climbed a Mountain

Peter answered Him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water!” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, and started walking on the water, and came near Jesus.”

Matthew 14:28, 29

Todays reading Matthew 14: 22-33

 

I climbed a mountain! It wasn’t Mt. Everest but a mountain in Tennessee. Gary and me were in Erwin Tennessee in the summer of 2010. One morning the two of us woke up and decided to climb a mountain to the top. I remember the morning of the climb I texted my son to let him know I was going mountain climbing. His text back was: “Please don’t let this be our last text.” I laughed and then began my journey. Gary and me started out right after breakfast and we climbed for several hours going up. We had to climb over, climb up, jump over and jump up. We had to leap on stepping stones to cross water and we had to go under some pretty icky things

that I was sure was filled with insects.  Still, the two of us pressed on and had a great time together. We felt like one with God in nature and we prayed non stop. When Gary and I got to the top we took in the beauty of the falls and the mountain. We thanked God for helping us get up and being our guide and we praised Him for His creation. Then Gary and I went back down. The next day we decided to climb that mountain again but this time from the other side. (it has different falls). As we were preparing we walked over to the Big Wooden Sign that we didn’t bother to read the day before. We figured it would give us some more history about the mountain we were climbing. This is what the sign said: Warning, Bears that attack are always present. Carry a shotgun and wear bells on your feet. Also, bees are everywhere  and get angry when disturbed. Wear a net around your body at all times.  

 

I like the boldness of Peter in today’s passage. There he is with the other 11 disciples in a boat on the water that has been battering them all night long. None of them got any sleep and by now they are tired from their anxiety and lack of sleep. Then they see Jesus walking on those crazy waves and all believe He is a ghost. You know sometimes when I get to these verses I wonder, did He chuckle? I have inadvertently scared a few people in my lifetime and I chuckle! So did Jesus? Maybe He did, Matthew doesn’t tell us that. What Matthew does tell us is that Jesus calls out to them and lets them know it is Him. Peter responds with Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water! Jesus tells Peter to come and as Peter steps out of the boat he steps onto the water and walks. Amazing, yet when Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus and looks back at the water he begins to sink. The thrill of walking on water ends and the miracle he is a part of abruptly stops.

 

There are times in our lives when we all have some pretty big mountains that stand in our way. There are times when we are battered by life. All of us understand anxiety and lack of sleep.Life is very overwhelming and at times make us feel inadequate and like failures. We become afraid of trying again or starting over. God knows that those times and thoughts will come to all of us and so He prepares us along the way. Peter would walk one day on a road that will batter him and he would be martyred for Christ. Jesus taught Peter to keep his eyes on Him and on the day Peter was killed, that is what he did. Peter learned  by walking on the water and  by remembering that he sunk only when he took his eyes off of Jesus. God knew that I would have a difficult walk in life and it would feel like I am climbing a very treacherous mountain. The warning gave all the reasons why I shouldn’t climb the mountain. The memory of me climbing it with God reminded me that I not only can- but I did.

 

What are you going through? Are you being battered? Is there a mountain before you? Does your situation seem hopeless and you feel helpless? Well you’re not if you have God. If you have God then you know in Him is our hope and in Him we get help. Go back and look at what it is you’ve already done and write it down. This is what I did this week. I kept telling myself each time something difficult came up, “I climbed a mountain.” I climbed a mountain–filled with hungry bears and angry bees. If I can do that than I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philp. 4:13) and so can you!

 

Mountain Top