Tuesday Testimonies: Created to Overcome

When I was 3 years old, I had a shiny red hand-me-down tricycle. I would like to say that bike and I were the fastest duo on the block, but I was not necessarily the fastest tricycle rider.

I was born with torticollis, a condition where one sternocleidomastoid muscle in the neck is shorter than the other. 

I had a head tilt, which may seem endearing on a child, but torticollis made the left side of my body very weak, and I was practically unaware it even existed. I did not learn to walk until I was two and never crawled. But, even as a child, I was stubborn and learned to scoot wherever I wanted to go.

On a family ski trip, I remember my mom screaming “Let lefty play” as I put all of my weight on my right foot and skied practically sideways into the trees next to the bunny hill. 

What that meant in my tricycle riding days is that I was unable to pedal on the left side with my left foot. However, as I sat and watched my older sister bike with ease, I refused to let her get too far ahead of me. 

So, I started pedaling on the right side with my right foot, and then swung my right leg over to the left side and pushed down on the left pedal, alternating sides.

It was definitely not the most efficient way to get down the street, but it did the trick.

I had physical therapy for over a year that helped strengthen my left side, and I eventually learned how to ride a tricycle correctly. 

Today, if you look closely, I still have a slight head tilt. I put my weight on my right side and cannot jump on my left foot. I hate turning my head to the left. I am still an extremely stubborn person. If I cannot do something, I find a way to do it. If someone tells me I cannot do something, I am even more inclined to succeed. 

But here is the thing: I hardly remember any of this. All of this information comes from my mom’s memory and pages of evaluations done by doctors. So, I cannot take much credit for the way I creatively rode the tricycle and overcame that obstacle.

I think that makes this story even more powerful. 

The ability to overcome is not something we must learn. It is an innate ability given to us. 

We are designed by the Creator to be curious. We have a desire to explore and learn and grow. As children, every obstacle is new, and we overcome them by interacting with the world around us and using the tools we have.

The solution this little girl with a tilted head came up with was definitely not the best way to ride a tricycle. But riding the tricycle was her goal. She did not sit and wait for her mom to push her. She did not get up and walk. She did not feel sorry for herself. She did something about it.

We all run into difficulties. When we do, we need to pray. We need to ask God for strength. But we also need to get creative and tap into our wiring to be overcomers. 

To be creators. 

To learn how to pedal on the left with our right foot.

Jacqueline Hale is the Feature Editor. Follow her on Twitter at @HaleJacquelineR.