blessings in disguise

When I was a preteen, I started noticing that all my friends were skinny and I was not. There were only like 8 girls in my private school class so there wasn't much variety. I've always had a bit of an athletic build. My cousin called me stocky one time and it absolutely crushed my little 12 year old heart. I wanted so bad to be skinny like my friends. 

Looking back, I was nowhere near chubby but when I wore a bathing suit I did not look like my friends who had those stick skinny legs. And one time, I went to the doctor for my physical and he mentioned that I weighed a lot for my height. My mom looked at me in horror and shook her head, but I burst into tears. After looking at me, he decided that it must have been muscle, but it was too late. The emotional scar had already been formed. Stupid doctor. I was so obsessed. I remember standing in front of the mirror and doing a half squat so my thighs would look smaller. 

I was a very active kid. I went everywhere on my bike and roller blades. I climbed trees and was always outside playing with the neighbor boys and my little brother. I was pretty good at sports too.

One day, my 8th grade teacher Mr. Crabtree announced that we would be starting track and field. It basically measured everything from long jump to high jump to stretching to pull-ups and more. As I completed each category, my teacher commented on my high scores. He was impressed. I actually broke the record for the most jump ropes in one minute. I still remember the number. I did 188 jumps in one minute which was over 30 more than any boy or girl had done in the previous years. Unfortunately my record was broken two years later but that's not the point. I was the only girl to receive the presidential fitness award that year. 

Mr. Crabtree commented after one of the events, "It must be all that muscle in your legs." I looked at him and smiled probably the biggest smile my mouth could handle. Finally. Those "stocky" thighs paid off. From then on, I was proud of my legs. They could do pretty awesome things. I continued playing varsity sports in high school and wasn't really too self-conscious about my legs anymore. As I matured, I realized that my junior high friends were super skinny and I was more on the normal side of the scale than I thought. 

The point, though, was that something I thought was a curse turned out to be a blessing. Obviously, this is not one of those stories about how I was born without a limb or something and turned it into something positive. But appreciating my body led me to be thankful for what God has given me and to try to be thankful for things when they appear to be less than ideal. You never know how God will use you and your struggles.