Limitations. This isn’t a word I love to embrace. The Dictionary app defines this as a limiting, limiting condition; lack of capacity; inability or handicap.

I want to preface this post by saying I am speaking from my own perspective as a deaf woman who was not born deaf. I have worn hearing aids from a young age, and I chose to go with the cochlear implants. I don’t speak for all deaf people or people with disabilities. I am sharing my own perspectives as I write here. I will bring other perspectives along the way, but I want to make sure I communicate that clearly.

I was about the age of nine when I got my first hearing aid. Then my second one, not too long after. I don’t remember ever having my full hearing.

Oftentimes, we don’t realize the extent of our limitations until we are around others who don’t have the same ones we do. Being at school with those we would call typical kids at this point in culture, put a highlight pen on those limitations that came with my hearing loss.

As a child, I especially didn’t want to be seen as different, weird, or unable to do what everyone else could do. So what do we as humans do when we feel that way? We ignore them and try to push through, and stay on the “I think I can” train. We tell ourselves and others the lie that we are fine and can manage on our own without their help. We don’t want pity.

This can lead to depression and anxiety because when we ignore things, whether it is the truth about ourselves and our situation, or how we are feeling because of our situation and limitations.

It can also lead to damaged relationships and isolation.

TELLING THE TRUTH

The first thing we have to do is be honest with ourselves about our limitations. For me to be able to say out loud what my limitations were and to acknowledge them was a HUGE first step in this process. We can’t move forward in anything without acknowledging the truth.

This is not easy. It is humbling, and we need to let go of the pride that prevents us from taking that first step.

I have struggled through this process. I have wrestled with feeling like I was less than other people, as in this culture, limitations are viewed as weaknesses. This is where I have to lean into God and His Word. God says I am created in His image.

I have been on several podcast episodes in the last year or so, and one of them was specifically about disabilities. I will add it to the bottom of this post. In this podcast, I was asked if there were scriptures I had been taught that, in light of my disability, I had to look at in a different light. I LOVED this question!! When God says I am made in His Image, I am taking Him at His word. I don’t believe God made a mistake with the way He created me anymore. Sometimes I find myself asking why it had to be me to have things that seem like mistakes or to be so different from others, but I think that is human. I believe people with disabilities get to show who God is in a whole other way.

One thing I have learned in life is that God works through the hard and yucky. He teaches me who He is through my limitations, and he teaches me to depend on and trust Him in a deeper way.

One of my favorite life verses is found in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. It says, And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you”, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficuties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Even when I am limited and I feel weak, He is my strength. Even though I am deaf and I struggle with hearing, some of my friends say I am one of the best listeners they know.

Even though my voice can sound nasally and soft, God used me to share morning devotions in front of over 200 women, and He is helping me record YouTube videos today.

When we can acknowledge our limitations, God can do so much with that, and others will see His strength in and through us.

Limitations don’t take away who God has created us to be, and they absolutely don’t take away our value as a person.

I want to encourage you, if you are a person with a disability, don’t be afraid to see your limitations truthfully, and as a person without a disability, when you see a person with a disability, don’t just see the limitations, see a person God created in His image, the same way and love them as God has loved you.