“So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over what has been denied.”
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was a happy little girl until, when she was only nineteen months old, a terrible fever took control of her body. Miraculously, she survived, but she lost both her sense of sight and hearing.
Because Helen was deaf and blind at such a young age, she had not been able to learn how to speak. But this did not stop her. She learned to recognize people by feeling their faces, and she learned various daily tasks by placing her hands on top of other people’s hands as they worked. By age 7, she had invented 60 hand signs that helped her communicate. Helen’s parents hired a personal tutor – Anne Sullivan – who did wonders for young Helen. Anne worked faithfully with her over the years, helping her transform from a stubborn blind girl to a smart, refined woman.
Helen graduated with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904, and she wrote a book called The Story of My Life. The sales from this book earned Helen enough money to buy her own house. After living a fulfilled life, Helen Keller died in 1968 and the Helen Keller Foundation was set up to assist people with blindness.
What disability has kept you from attempting great things for God? Some people are tempted to make excuses for laziness because of their limitations and hard things they have to face. Maybe your parents divorced, or maybe you are not as naturally talented or outgoing as you wish you could be – but that is no excuse for being “disabled” in serving God! Satan knows our weaknesses. He wants us to be discouraged and to keep us from doing God’s work. Pay no attention to wrong thinking about hard things in your life and limitations you might have no control over. Those obstacles do not matter at all to God. In fact, the Bible says that God makes His strength perfect in our weaknesses!
2 Corinthians 12:9 – And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.