Hello! Welcome back to another blog! Last week Jamie and I had the opportunity to go and speak to a track club we used to belong to with our boys called Body in Training. We were asked to do the weekly devotional. I spoke first and then Jamie went after me sharing his part of our journey together. Luke is coaching at BIT this season, so he was there as well to hear us tell our story which was really awesome. The feedback we got after that evening was amazing. I realized even more, that it's not just people with Muscular Dystrophy that my story helps, but people struggling with all kinds of things in their lives. I was overwhelmed by some of the responses, and it was just more proof to me that God indeed is working through me because I am open to that. So, for this week's blog, I would like to share my part of the speech. Here it is......
Hello, first of all I would like to thank Paul and Becky for
inviting me here to speak to you all this evening. It’s an honor to be back
with them. My family and I made some great memories for several years with BIT.
I love everything they are about, and all the good they bring to the world with
this running club!
My name is Amy Shinneman, and I am married to coach Shinneman.
Coach Luke who some of you know too, is my oldest son. I live with a disability
called Bethlem Myopathy which is a form of Muscular Dystrophy. There are many
different types of MD, with varying levels of weakness. Has anyone here ever
heard of Muscular Dystrophy? A lot of times it gets confused with MS, or
Cerebral Palsy, both of which are very different conditions from mine. I have
had muscular dystrophy all of my life. The way that it affects me is that it
makes my muscles very weak making it hard to walk and do other physical
activities, and it is also a progressive disease, which means that it continues
to worsen with time. My muscles slowly waste away and become weaker. There is
currently no treatment or cure for my disability, but people are fighting for
us living with this disease every day to find one. I stay as active as I
can to save the muscles that I do have, the best I possibly can. A lot of it is out of my control though.
I wanted to tell you all a little about me to help you
understand my message this evening. One thing you should know is that I have
never been able to run in my life.
Running is a gift, and you should all be so grateful for your ability to
run. Even if you aren’t winning races, or you have a bad race, it is truly a
gift that you can do that. Fun fact about me, is that I absolutely love
watching people run, especially my two sons who are both runners. It fascinates
me, and I admire every one of you who is out there running, jumping or throwing
and using your gift of movement.
Growing up, I was often angry that I had a disability. For a
very long time I Iooked at it as something that was a huge negative in my life
because it makes everything so difficult. It wasn’t until just about 2-3 years
ago that I started to look at my disability through a different lens. I have
grown a lot closer to God, and desired to serve him more. I started to wonder, what if I was grateful
for my disability? I thought, what if
God is wanting me to use my disability to bless and help others. That I should
be grateful for the fact that I have a disability. So, that’s what I did. I
started thanking God for the gift of being able to reach others just by being
myself. I started to share about my journey of life with a disability on social
media, and through a blog I started writing.
I started hearing from people all around the world who live
with Muscular Dystrophy. They were thanking me for sharing my story because it
was helping them to not feel alone! I started to feel joy in my life that I
hadn’t ever experienced. I was serving God by recognizing my calling in life. I
started to feel that true joy when I started seeing how opening up to God’s
plan for my life, and using that to serve others made such a huge difference in
helping others. I was no longer trying to conform to what the world said I
should be, but I was open to listening and obeying what God was saying I should
be, so all the glory would point to Him.
It’s crazy to think that I am grateful for something that
causes so much hardship in my life, and really has no end in sight. Can you
think of what you could be grateful for that makes things hard for you? Maybe
that thing that is hard for you is what God is using to change you. To show you
that is how you are supposed to serve, and He will give you the strength and
the tools to do it. I would challenge each and every one of you here tonight to
give that a try. Start thanking God daily for things in your life that are
difficult, and ask him to show you how you can use those things to serve Him.
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