The odd thing about handicaps is that they frequently propel people to height they could never have attained without them.
There used to be a doctor in Amarillo (perhaps he is still here, I never knew his name) who was reared on a farm down off the caprock east of here, who had a crippled arm from polio. Always, there was instilled in him during childhood, "John will have to be a doctor because he will be unable to farm." Sure enough, the others of the family farmed, but he is reported to have often said, "Thank God for my crippled arm." For without it he would never have been a man of healing.
Norman vincent Peale in his efforts to overcome excessive shyness wrote a bestseller, "The Power of Positive Thinking." "It came out of my own struggles to find myself." he wrote. I have often wondered what kind of a person he would have been if making friends and small talk had been easy for him.
Was it Demosthenes, who placed the rocks in his mouth to overcome speech impediment to become the great orator?
Most of us have some kind of handicap to overcome. We may be shy, or have been raised 'poor'. May be we have to compensate for a mediocre brain with extra work effort. maybe we are fearful when we would like to be a person known as brave.
Whatever our personal handicap, as long as we have a modicum of brains and energy, we can overcome tremendous obstacles. Some of the most prosperous people I know are not really extra bright. Some of the most talented speakers are not really all that deep. Some of the college profs are eggheads who kept on trying. As somebody said, "it not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." That's right. God never gives us the spirit of fear, but rather the spirit of power. BL
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