“This is a cross only my daughter can carry.” My parent didn’t say this with enthusiasm, or with disapproval. It was more a statement of reality. I love working with my students, or should I say my kids. They amaze me every day with their resilience and tenacity. I heard a song the other day that got me to thinking about what my parent said and had me looking at my students in a different way.

Carry The Cross is a song sung by a Christian group called the Katinas. It is a beautiful song with an inspiring message. The songs lyrics, in part goes like this:

Carry the Cross

If you believe

Just take one step then another

Walking to your destiny

Carry the Cross

For the world to see

Give your life for another

This is the Journey…

From the day that we are born, a journey begins. When that journey begins, we have a cross to bear. It’s a cross we will carry until we breathe our last breath. At the beginning of our journey, our crosses are light: easy to bear and easy to carry. At some point in our lives, our crosses become burdensome: heavy to bear and heavy to carry. The weight of our crosses is often predicated upon the choices we make in our lives, and the choices that others make for us. Sometimes the weight of our cross has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with what life throws at us. I believe that how we carry our cross dictates how we live our lives. When burdens become heavy, when illness takes its toll, do we choose to carry our cross? Or do we choose to lay it down?

Now imagine, just for a moment, the cross our children and adults with disabilities have to bear! Their crosses are not crosses carried by choice. It is not a cross that can be laid down and picked up later when the whim hits. No matter how hard they may try, it is not a cross by choice to bear. It is one that will forever be carried until they breathe their last breath.

It is because of this cross that makes it so important for me to be the best Special Education teacher I can be. With every skill I teach, their cross becomes a little easier to bear. With every ability they learn to possess, their cross becomes a little less burdensome to carry. My job is to provide them with every opportunity, every skill needed to be the best that they can be. My job is not to make their lives easy with excuses, feeling sorry for them, placating their bad behaviors, having low expectations, etc.; all behaviors that leads to a heavy, burdensome cross! If I do what I am supposed to do, then each step my students make becomes a little easier to take.

So the question for you to ponder as their teachers, parents, family members, care-providers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, doctors, nurses, speech therapists, vision teachers, principals, etc., “Are you weighing down their cross or making it easier to bear?”