Super Powers

We live in a world that defines us by the diagnosis we receive. Most everyone has one. If you don’t, I’m sure a quick google search of your daily troubles could produce a selection of choices for you to pick from. My house is full of kids with labels, lots and lots of labels. They range from the minor little things you would never notice to the major life adjusting kind.

My kids will have to live with these labels for the rest of their lives. Some of their labels will never be known by others but some will have to be shared in order for “normal” life to happen. However, I never want their labels to be an area of fear or judgement, or even a reason of embarrassment or shame.

My daughter said something to me the other day, something that changed the way I saw her. She has a heart defect. One that is barely noticed aside from the yearly visit to the cardiologist and the extra sound her heart flutters. As an infant, while nursing her in the quiet of the night, you could hear it, swishing ever so softly. As she grew, it got louder, until she was big enough it could only be heard by holding her close. Now I have to rest my head on her heart to hear a glimpse of the flutter. Some day it may be gone and I am oddly sad about this. It has become a part of who she is.

You see when she came running up to me she very proudly declared, “Do you know my heart has an extra beep?”

“Yes, it does.” I said with a beaming smile.

“That’s where I get all my energy from.” And with her statement she was off and running again.

The extra beep wasn’t going to slow her down, it was going to speed her up. It was going to be the source of her energy, not the reason to stop.

I have been thinking about this all week. If every child could see their faults, their brokenness, the things that label them as the source of their super power, we could live in an amazing world. A world that would be changed by love.

As I awoke this morning, I pondered the ways in which I could help our kids use the labels of life as their super powers. To let it define their character for the good. To help them see it as a gift, their gift.