For those of you who have a port wine stain, or are you a parent of a child with a port wine stain, it is important to remember that no matter what we have to do for our health issues the focus should not be on those, but on what life looks like on a day to day basis. After all God made us the way He wanted us to be so we are stuck with a majority of His design. There are a host of things people have to deal with over the course of life. Those of you who read this, some of have SWS which a PWS can be a part of, others have Asthma, yet others may have arthritis. I think the important thing though is to realize that no matter we how we are designed by the Lord Jesus we are still valuable to Him. He tells us that in the Bible. Speaking of the Bible have you ever wondered why it is people go to such great lengths to ban it? After all, it communicates God's love for His children and the rest of the world in many ways. He voices how he cares about peoples struggles. It seems like the harder you have it, the more in the grand scheme of things, God wants to reach out to you. I hope several of you take Him up on that offer, but if for some reason you don't feel comfortable with the Lord, which I hope is not the case for very many, you can find encouragement elsewhere, though not to the degree He can offer it. Now I mention finding encouragement for those with birthmarks, beause it appears that some people tend to struggle with low self esteem because of their birthmark. This will help you keep things in perspective. So as I was saying for finding encouragement, look at books like the Chicken soup for the Soul series. Regardless of how feminine the prior suggestion may seem, it will help you to keep your self esteem up if you are have resources like that to offer encouragement at times. I try to find encouraging things because there is enough of the other in this world and you don't need to go very far to find it. If you know what types of issues that people tend to get upset over you know what I mean.
If you for some unfortunate reason you don't take God at His Word, then at least look at the starving or at least needy around the world. My point in saying all this is things could always be worse, and here are people who help to keep some of us realizing that it is unproductive to not look beyond our own face. My hope is that in spite of the birthmark those of you with them have, that you will still find ways to be constructive contributors to society through your will, if that is your ultimate desire. What I mean by that is the government will force you to contribute with taxes, but other than that it is up to you. There can certainly be good ways to contribute. One way that stands out to me would be to go to school for a field you like and find your employment in that field. At this point it would behoove me to heed my own advice :), as a lot of what I do in my current job, I don't care for. If I had the schooling I could do that. Having said that, for some people one subject seems too hard to pass and is what stands between them and a degree. If that is not an issue for you then more power to you. In addition to schooling for a job you like, another way to help out would be to clean up public facilites. Just remember, that though this doesn't apply to everyone, those of you this is hard for can function in spite of your struggles. Your PWS doesn't have to be a strong source of shame if commented on the wrong way. If we allow our focus to move there and we are still sensitive to our talking about our PWS we are always going to be depressed due to our lack of self esteem and that isn't healthy. For some people that would beg to ask the question what is it going to take to overcome that? I believe the answer for each person is different. If you struggle with low self esteem, I would suggest finding out for yourself. If you don't that is wonderful, and I know I don't anymore, I hope things stay that way for you.