“A religious neighbor of mine thinks we are the way we are due to someone in our family being a sinner and we are now paying the price for it. We have to rebuke it and release the sin.” – per a post in an Usher Syndrome Face Book Group
Um….really?!
Are they talking about what Adam and Eve did thousands of years ago when they chose to disobey God?
Who has the nerve to tell people that?
ESPECIALLY when the person has something of them that is out of their control?
Why is it that religious people say things like this? This is not the first time I have heard of this thought process and it makes me disgusted. I have heard things like this taught throughout my life being around Christians, sadly. I never really understood it and I still don’t. YES. I fully understand there are consequences in life but being born with a disability, a disease, being “different”, is not a price that we are paying because someone in our family sinned.
I am here to tell/remind you that…..
GOD MADE YOU BEAUTIFUL
Whether you believe in God or not, I truly believe He has created us all. We all have a purpose in life and He designed it so that each of us are apart of His story. Life is not perfect. We were never promised a perfect life.
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As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him……..”
~ John 9:1-3
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Yesterday, our pastor shared the above Bible verse and I remembered something. Something that I had once forgotten. I was created with a purpose.
Why me? Why do I have to be the one who was born deaf (which I honestly don’t mind at all) and then developing this eye disease that is slowly taking my sight away? Why Jadzia? Why does my daughter have a disease called Cystic Fibrosis that is life shorting?
Yes. YES. That’s right! We were created so that the Works of God might be displayed in HIM.
Even though I KNEW this…it felt like an *AH HA* moment when I heard that in church.
Then, the worship team came up and sung this song below. Do you know how many times I have heard this song at church? A TON!!! I have always loved it and the words. But that DAY…it meant something completely different. Every single part of us God knitted together and that there was just so beautiful. I want to be used by Him. I want Christ’s love shown through my daughter either by her or by us as her parents.
Beautiful Things
by Michael Gungor
All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way?
I wonder if my life could really change at all?
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground at all?
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from the old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
Oh, You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
I sat there in church listening, singing, tears streaming down my face as I held my precious sleeping Warrior in my arms and praying, Lord, please use us for YOUR GLORY. Thank you for making us beautiful even when we struggle to think otherwise. Please give us the strength to share You through our own struggles.
I hope this post will leave you with encouragement in your life. With a newness desire to bring Glory to God. He can and will use you whether you are blind, deaf, have C.F., cancer, have A.T., D.M.D, tall, short, big, small, dark, light, red, green and have purple polka-dot skin. Whether you believe in Christ or not, He can use you to bless others by your actions, by your strength, by you just living life and being you.
God has made YOU Beautiful and He will use you for His Glory. AMEN!
Now go out and show the world just how AMAZING of a person you are! 🙂