Sarah and Bethany
After my ranting and raving yesterday, you probably had a clue that I hit on a sensitive topic for me. 🙂 sorry…I know I way oversimplified the topic.
Starting over: Labels are good for many things: organizing, categorizing, identification, and informational. Doctors need to be able to label or group “like” symptoms together so they can discover a treatment and perhaps a cure. As Christians, we label people into two categories, lost and saved, because we want to know who we need to share the Good News with! A swimming teacher labels kids by their swimming abilities to determine what level of class they should enter. In our educational system, we appropriately label children by the grade they are entering. Even our names are a label of sorts, allowing us some uniqueness. Besides our names, there are the labels of mom, dad, nana, aunt, uncle, cousin, brother, sister, grandpa, grandma… These are names of intimacy and endearment.
Ok- I’ll admit, labeling isn’t all bad. In fact, some is necessary, helpful, and good! However, (yes, I’m still going to justify my little rant yesterday)-
People need to be seen as people first!
Not a label, not a number, and not a grade. Not a diagnosis, not a judgment.
Enjoy the following video as people who are differently abled celebrate their uniqueness~
Label Jars-Not People video clip
http://videos.disabled-world.com/video/240/amazing-teens
Surprising Treasure: Instead of being oversensitive, I can learn to be the ambassador of people with special needs, by proclaiming loud and clear that we are all imperfect but we are all people made in the image of God.