Were you a shy child?
Did you want to hide behind others when attention was focused on you? I know what that’s like because I remember those times. The fear of being singled out for any reason, much less a black eye.
My son was like me, shy until his black eye.
The Black Eye
He was playing football in the yard with other boys from the neighborhood. Then, someone’s elbow caught him in the eye. The injury left his eye black and blue. The discoloration took a few days to clear. He was about ten at the time. His classmates gathered around him the next day at school, wanting to know what happened to him. He gave up his years as a shy follower and became a leader.
He chose to become a leader that day
Realizing he was significant and could be a leader. As he shed the layers of protection he had taken on being shy, he became worthy of others’ attention.
The black eye accident could have ended differently. He could have acted out, become a bully, or turned mean. Thank God that wasn’t in his character.
His friends looked at him differently because he was different. Now, he was a leader and signed up to play football at the community recreation center.
The kids sought him out to ask him his opinion
Although he was dyslexic, he was doing great. After all the tests, we were told he had trouble visualizing what he read or heard others read or spoke about.
When his teacher first told us they wanted to test him, I went into overdrive. First, I wondered what I had done wrong while pregnant. Or while he was growing into the little guy he was now. I spent hours on the phone looking into special schools. This was pre-internet. Then, one day, I heard him tell his brother about the fish in his small aquarium and their life cycles.
I asked where he learned this information. He said from one of the library books he had checked out at the Carnegie Library in town.
Well, that’s when I stopped worring about his future
Little did I know what was coming up. He was in special ed classes until the tenth grade, when he asked to go into the mainstream student body.
That year, he won a county-wide math award. It’s pretty impressive for someone who is dyslexic.
It’s also the year a science teacher helped turn a teenager’s natural doubt about God into a belief that all gods are made up for mankind’s benefit.
I could not change his mind and turned it over to God.
Two years later, I received a call that I thought was a prank
A man called, telling me he was from the Navy and that my son wanted to enlist. I laughed. He didn’t think it was funny. I said yes, this has got to be a prank. He said, Mrs. Shaw, why do you believe that? I answered the Navy is for people who want adventure. My son will not even try Catsup and Mustard on a burger. He still didn’t laugh, so I asked to speak to my son. Yes, he knew it was for adventure, but he felt it offered what he wanted.
Becoming a Sailor
So, he signed up for the Navy before high school graduation. He was going to receive training to achieve his goals. In the Navy, he took part in Operation Desert Storm. He was stationed on the battleship The U.S.S. Missouri.
Going to War
In the first weeks of 1991, The Missouri prepared to launch Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles. And made ready to provide gunfire support as required. The ship fired her first Tomahawk missile at Iraqi targets at 01:40 am on January 17, 1991. twenty-seven additional missiles followed over the next five days. She is equipped with four 12-inch and sixteen 6-inch guns.
Mighty Mo’s Guns
The nine 16-inch guns are the Mighty Mo’s trademark feature. Each gun barrel is 68 feet long. Weighs an incredible 134 tons. And can fire a 2,700-pound projectile 23 nautical miles in 90 seconds — with pinpoint accuracy.
And fire they did, and was fired upon, too. A mother’s heart isn’t easy while her child is off during wartime. I also had two nephews who were with the Army in the desert — brothers who had a few years earlier lost their mother to cancer. I was grateful my son chose the Navy. It seemed safer.
Yellow Ribbons and Prayers
I put up yellow ribbons everywhere and proudly wore my American Flag with a yellow ribbon attached to it. The prayers would fill a room. I am so glad God gave me a Holy Spirit prayer language. I could pray anywhere, anytime.
My son would call whenever he could and wrote nearly illegible letters that I treasure. His sense of adventure still didn’t include the food of the Navy; as a result, he lost weight and became sick. He would do his KP, then report to Sick Bay and receive fluids.
Meeting the Girl and Falling in Love
Finally, his ship came to port on the US coast. He came home on leave and met his future wife. His future mother-in-law took her daughter aside to say she was afraid he had a disease and was dying because he was so thin.
After he had completed his time in the Navy, he came home and worked the summer in construction with his brother. It didn’t take him long to figure out that wouldn’t be his future. He could go back to the Navy but chose the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard
He decided to join the Coast Guard. So off he went to training again. He got married and was stationed in Miami, where the drug smugglers had a bounty on members of the Coast Guard. His first child was born there. My heart was uneasy while he was stationed there.
Leaving the Coast Guard
When he got a new assignment, his mother-in-law pressured her daughter to bring the baby to stay with her. She told her daughter to let him report by himself. It was hard, but He bid the Coast Guard goodbye.
Starting A Business
After several job offers, he decided he could do better on his own. He has successfully managed his business and full-time sub-contractors for over twenty-five years. He and his family have a condo on the beach where you will find them most weekends if they aren’t traveling elsewhere.
To say that this mother is proud and pleased is an understatement. Who knew that a black eye could transform someone from a follower into a leader?
Who knew a child with a learning disability could become a successful businessman?
God often choses what we don’t expect to bring change
I know that a black eye is not a usual path, but I am so glad God chose it to bring my son’s character traits to the surface. So the next time you see someone suffering from a black eye, know that God is probably working behind the scenes.
I know that God has my son, even if my son doesn’t at this point.
