Please Stop Biting my Face

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
(The Serenity Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr)

The past few months I’ve been able to work as a direct care technician in a care center for intellectually disabled children and adults. I’ve discovered that sometimes life is not so pretty. Some feet are webbed, some eyes are blind, some backs are crooked, and some people eat their poop. Sometimes when I look at my sweet boys and girls I just want them to be normal. I want them to be able to get out of their wheelchairs, to walk around the block when they need some fresh air, to taste food, to stop playing in the toilet every half hour. I want them to enjoy simple pleasures of life and most especially I want them to go home and be with their families more than is now possible. I know there are others with even more difficult lives and it is hard for me to imagine.

These boys and girls are special people. They kiss, they hug, they bite, they hit, they scream, they laugh, they yell. They have seizures and falls and g-tubes and hospital trips. They don’t understand right and wrong the way you and I do. They hurt themselves and they hurt other people. They are innocent. They are different. They are special.

While getting one young man ready for bed I looked up a little weary after a long day’s work and saw a crooked picture frame hanging from his wall. It had the Serenity Prayer written on it: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” As I looked back down at my tall, non-verbal, stiff and immobile boy I imagined those very words coming out of his mouth.

I don’t like losing control, but some things are just not for me to plan. I am not the Great Creator, the Master Healer, The Master Shepherd, or the Lord of the vineyard. Jesus Christ will help us change what we can, but after that he’ll help us fix what we can’t. I am so thankful to our Heavenly Father for sending His perfect son who will heal me and my family and all my sweet friends of all our infirmities and weaknesses and imperfections, whatever they may be. One day knees won’t be swollen, hips will align straight, young women will stop hitting their heads, young children will stop biting my face, sins will be forgiven, we will be clean, we will be healed, and we will be whole.

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