I didn’t learn to walk until I was three years old. A doctor from India who could barely speak English realized that my middle ear was drained dry, so he started me on a medicine that took care of the problem. That’s when I started walking. But I still had a balance problem, which caused me to fall easily, so I lived with bangs and bruises, often covered in Band-aids. I was a mess. A doctor told my parents that as a result of my poor equilibrium, I would never ride a two-wheel bicycle and I would never drive a car.
On my eighth birthday, my dad bought me a bicycle. He got it for only $10, so he also bought one for my younger sister, Cindy. I remember watching them teach both my younger brother and sister to ride. But they refused to teach me. My bicycle had training wheels. Jim and Cindy could both ride two-wheelers, so the thought of riding with training wheels humiliated me. I cried and pleaded for my dad to take off those training wheels. Angry at me for the constant whining, he removed the training wheels, shoved the bicycle at me, and said, “There, go kill yourself.” He walked into the house and closed the door.
I was hurt that my parents wouldn’t teach me. I didn’t realize that they knew I would never learn to ride because of my balance and that they were only trying to protect me. I wheeled my bicycle out to the street and climbed on. Every time I tried to get it rolling, I fell off. I fell off again and again and again. I skinned my knees and scraped my legs and hands and arms every time I hit the blacktop. But I got back up, climbed back on, and attempted to ride one more time. Any by the end of the day, I was riding that bicycle up and down the street. My parents were never so proud of me.
I learned to ride that bicycle at age eight, despite my balance disorder. When I was 12-years-old, I was talking to my mom one day and she said to me, “Marjie, will you stand still.” I said, “I can’t, Mom. If I stand still then I will fall over.” I couldn’t stand in one place. I constantly shifted positions to maintain my balance, but it was such a habit for me that I wasn’t even aware that I did it until that day when my mom brought it to my attention.
However, my balance steadily improved over the years, which means that it was far worse four years earlier when I taught myself to ride a two-wheeler. And eight years later, I enlisted in the military when I didn’t think I could. Oh, and by the way, I also learned to drive a car.
You see, when God has a plan for your life, it doesn’t matter what anyone says, He will enable you to accomplish great things. The doctor said that I’d never ride a bicycle or drive a car, but I did. I didn’t think that my balance was good enough to get into the military, but it didn’t stop me. And, to this day, if I ever say to my mother, “I can’t…” she says to me, “Marjie, I don’t ever want to hear you say ‘I can’t.’ You’ve done things that the doctor said was impossible.”
And the Bible says that all things are possible with God.