We all have gifts...Even if we cant always see them.

I was reminded of this story today and although maybe you have heard it different or even if you have heard it the same, I think its an awesome story and one to let us all remember the greatness we posses.

A man had a child who was born with learning disabilities. As the child grew, he realized that the disabilities were more and more profound and as a result, he was becoming distanced from other children in his classroom as they moved on. The father decided to find a school for learning disabled children and he enrolled his son in that school. It wasn't a cheap school and he sacrificed much in his life to get his son in this school to learn the best he could. Even here, his son Shay struggled.

The years went on and every year there was a small graduation ceremony with the kids being recognized for their scholastic abilities, but Shay, he was never recognized. When the awards were given for the math science, reading, whatever....The teachers always went on about how "special" those children were.

The father, so extremely frustrated, after the award ceremony he went to the teacher in a huff...

"Why doesn't my son ever get any awards...He works hard, he tries....He has a learning disability and he cant grasp some of the distinctions but why doesn't he get recognized as special?"

The teacher went on to explain to the father, with a smile of her face...

"Mr. Smith, these awards are for academics, and there are no awards for other attributes in the kids... I am sorry to say that, but this is a school and is all about the learning but if you would like to hear what makes Shay special, I will happily tell you!"

"Yes, please, tell me...I would like to hear it"

"Mr. Smith, what makes Shay special is he has a way of bringing the perfection and the special things out in everyone he meets"

Mr. Smith was frustrated and felt the teacher was just trying to make him feel good and said...

"What in the world does that mean? He brings out the perfection in people? You tell me, how is THAT ever going to benefit my child later in life? My child needs an education, a way to LEARN!That's ridiculous....Can he get a grade on that? That's the most silly thing I have ever heard!"

He grabbed Shay and stormed out of the classroom and started to walk down the street.... He was running all of this through his head, questioning his enrollment for his son in this school and was simply fuming at the teachers response to him.

As they walked, they walked by a baseball diamond and a group of kids playing baseball. Shay pulled at his dad and said...

"Daddy, can we go watch?? PLEASE!!??"

Mr. Smith was so wrapped up in his head, he followed Shay as he walked him to the baseball field at sat down on the bench... Mr. Smith, still wrapped up in his own conversations in his head, missed that Shay had walked off and was talking to one of the boys on the field... He was asking if he could play.

Shay's learning disability was not easily missed and kids generally knew quickly something was "different" about Shay.

Mr. Smith walked up to the boys and the boy looked at Mr. Smith and nervously said....

"Well, we are in the 8th inning and 6 runs behind, so it cant hurt anything....Sure, you can play, whats your name?"

Shay smiled and jumped around....

"My name is Shay....My name is Shay!!"

Mr. Smith sat down to watch the game and uncomfortably watched Shay bounce around in center field as the game went on...Luckily no ball was ever hit to him but Mr. Smith noticed all of the kids taking notice of Shay and his antics and he became uncomfortable.

The three outs came and Shay just stayed out in center field....The kids yelled for shay to come into the dugout and into the infield...

As the game went on, the team had a string of luck and started to get some runs....the got 3 runs in and then one guy hit a homerun.... now they are 2 runs from tieing it up and 3 runs from winning.... Shay on the sidelines screaming for the team more than any other player, getting the other players just as stirred up...Clapping, whistling and even making the other kids giggle...

One batter up, hits a single....second batter up, hits a single.... Now its Shays turn to bat and Mr. Smith had a huge sinking feeling in his stomach.... there were two outs and it looked like the game was going to be up to Shay....Mr. Smith was crushed as he was sure they wouldn't let him bat....

He was shocked when he found they did....

Shay stepped up to the plate, awkward with his grip, never batting before, and to Mr Smiths surprise, Shays team was cheering him on...Showing him as much excitement as he had shown the other players...and then Mr Smith noticed the pitcher walking off the mound and taking a couple of steps towards Shay.... He slowly pitched an underarm pitch to Shay for him to try and hit the ball.... As the team cheered, Shay swung and missed!

Mr. Smith, Shocked again, saw a kid come from the dugout, stand behind shay, helped him hold the bat and watched the pitcher take two more steps closer to Shay and pitched again.... Shay and the other kid, TOGETHER, swung and hit a rolling grounder right towards the pitcher....The kid helping shay started to scream at him...

"RUN TO FIRSt SHAY...RUN TO FIRST!!!"

The pitcher ran up and made the ground ball quickly, threw it towards first base and again, Mr. Smith Gasped as he watched the pitcher PURPOSEFULLY throw the ball over the 1st baseman's head and into right field....

Now the dugout started to scream.....

"RUN TO SECOND SHAY....RUN TO SECOND!!!"

Shay, laughing and stumbling along, made his way to second.... The right fielder got to the ball and hurled it towards second base....Mr Smith gasped again as he realized the right fielder had purposefully threw it over the second baseman's head and towards the catcher....

"RUN TO THIRD SHAY....RUN TO THIRD!!!"

Now even members of the other team were yelling for shay to run!!

Shay, laughing, smiling and just trying his best to run, clapping, stumbling, he made it to third and now his dad could hear him giggling with excitement....

The catcher scooped up the ball and hurled it to the third baseman, lobbing it over his head into left field.... Now all of the boys on the field were screaming and the dugout was empty....

"RUUUUUUN SHAY.....RUUUUUN HOME SHAY!!!"

Shays Father was astonished...He was simply blown away and tears started to run down his face as he watched Shay run across home plate with the winning run and both teams cheering for him, running to him, and lifting him up on their shoulders....Shay was laughing, and smiling and was beside himself.....

Then Mr. Smith heard Shays teachers voice in his head....

"Mr. Smith, what makes Shay special is he has a way of bringing the perfection and the special things out in everyone he meets"

I LOVE this story and wanted to make sure I added this to my blog....

EVERYONE has something special about them, and we ALL have greatness inside of us.... I think that sometimes we just seem to forget that, but thank God for people like Shay who can remind us of the greatness we all posses.