*JEREMIAH 29:11*
From a very young age, I was told by everyone “God’s got a plan for you”. I would always nod or say thank you, even though I really didn’t understand exactly what that meant at that time. My parents would always tell me that I was born with Cerebral palsy for a reason, so I never really questioned it. For a while at least.
This picture of me is from middle school. Let’s face it middle school is a rough time for everybody. Middle school was an especially difficult time in my life, and a time where things changed for me with my relationship with God and his plan. As a kid, I had been told by doctors, therapists, and family members that I could walk unassisted one day. Honestly, I had subconsciously filed that away as I WOULD walk unassisted one day. Another thing is I always wanted to play sports. Everybody in my family played sports. My favorite sport was and is football; my Dad was a high school football coach, and I think in my mind I was holding on to the hope that I would get to play the game. I thought that was everything back then.
Reality hit me hard in middle school. One day all of my friends were signing up to play middle school football, and it hit me that I wasn’t ever going to be able to play. I had to accept that where I was with my cerebral palsy was where I was going to be. At thirteen years old, I had recently lost my father to cancer, I was very overweight, and I was just kind of lost. I was just angry and unhappy with everything, including God.
However, I couldn’t help but think of my dad. He had to accept his life with cancer, and I knew he would not want me to live like this. I thought about the church overflowing with people for his funeral. I knew that every person there was there, because he had influenced them greatly and shared his faith with them. I knew that was the kind of man I wanted to be, so I decided to commit to living my life to Christ. I had been saved before this, but now, I was going to be serious about it. I thought about everything God had gotten me through and how ridiculous it was that I wasn’t leaning on him to get me through this point in my life.
Once I changed my mindset, things did start to get better. Over the next summer, with the support of my family, I lost over 30 pounds. It made a huge difference in allowing me to be more mobile and independent. I feel like it has probably saved me from a couple of surgeries. I came out of my shell more and began to show my personality at school. I decided since I couldn’t play football, I would give the golf team a try. I was enjoying life again. I entered high school with a brand-new outlook. Being able to walk on my own and being some kind of athlete was not part of his plan for me, and that is okay. However, there were a lot of good things in store for me, as I believe there are for everyone. We just have to trust and learn not to be short sighted.