It's a line we hear a lot, especially on talk shows and newscasts, "He/she never really had a chance."
Meet Anthony Robles, a senior at Arizona State. In March, 2011, he captured the PAC 10 NCAA Wrestling Championship in the 125 lb. class. This came after a season in which he scored 36 wins and 0 losses.
Imagine the shock his 16-year old mother felt as she gazed at her son for the first time. Their problems looked to be insurmountable.
Not necessarily.
"My mom always told me when I was younger that God made me this way for a reason and I didn't understand what that meant," Anthony says.
He told one interviewer he can't remember ever feeling sorry for himself. His mother and stepfather raised him to believe he could do anything he set his mind to.
"I grew up thinking that way. I didn't think of my condition as something that could hold me back. I just thought this is how God made me and I'm going to make the best of it . . . . "
So seven-year old Anthony decided it took too long to put on his prosthesis and abandoned it for crutches. Nobody thought he could do it, but he rode a bike at age five and later played football. A few years ago in the fall he covered the ASU one-mile track in ten minutes. By spring he did it in eight. Regulars got used to seeing Anthony lifting weights, "running" mile-after-mile on the track and climbing the Stadium stairs as part of his training. He even climbed rocky Squaw Peak with his team, making it to the top in half an hour.
"My parents raised me to believe there was nothing I couldn't do," he says.
Coach Thom Ortiz says Anthony never asked for nor expected any special treatment. That reflects his mother's attitude. She told an interviewer. "He is a blessing. Don't treat him like he's something, but don't treat him like he's nothing, either. Just treat him like Anthony."
After college he plans a speaking career. This young man won't need any visual aids, because he is one. He has a powerful message about living with challenges. "It doesn't have to be a missing leg. You could have any obstacle in your life . . . Don't stay concerned with the negatives–what can hold me back, what my disadvantages are. I stay focused on the positive thing–what I have, what I can do."
Judy Robles fascinates me as much as her son. What enabled her to stay instead of walking away from her one-legged son? What kept her from becoming an alcoholic or getting strung out on drugs? Where did she find the strength to go on as she watched her little boy struggle and fall down, again and again?
She could have handled it by saying, "Oh, you poor thing. Here, let Mommy do that for you." Instead, she taught Anthony that God made him the way he is for a reason and if he set his mind to it, he could do anything.
Two kinds of mother love. Two kinds of motivation.
Since we know Judy Robles is a Christian, it seems reasonable to think she depended on God and on Bible verses like this for comfort and to keep her going.
I can do everything through him who gives who gives me strength. –Philippians 4:8
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book
–Psalm 56:8 (New Living Translation)
So what do you think, does faith in God make a difference in how we face obstacles?
You tell me.
Lovingly,
Lenore
Note: Quotes come from the numerous newspaper and magazine articles I found when I Googled "Anthony Robles."