{"id":15,"date":"2010-05-25T09:22:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T09:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html"},"modified":"2010-05-25T09:22:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T09:22:00","slug":"william-the-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html","title":{"rendered":"William the Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When William was two months old, I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup. “He’s really tight,” our doctor said. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
“Yep,” I nodded. “It’s hard for me to get him dressed. His arms are so strong I can hardly pull them away from his body.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He frowned. “He has extremely high muscle tone.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I’ve watched enough doctors express concern that I knew to ask, “Are you thinking this could be a problem?”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Well…” He looked at me. “Well, it could indicate a neurological problem. We’ll know better in a few months.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As it turns out, William’s brain is fine. He simply has extremely high muscle tone. In other words, the kid is very strong. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I see it as he climbs into his high chair, or when he loses his balance but doesn’t fall, or when he drags an object from one room to another. William is also (and has always been) very intense. Intensely happy most of the time, but over the course of most days he expresses the full range of human emotions. He burst into tears, for instance, when I took away his yogurt (which had become an opportunity to paint the placemat) this morning. He stomps his feet when he doesn’t get his way. He spends most of the day running, but when tiredness hits, he tugs on my leg, “Tired, Mommy. Need a nap.” Strong and capable and intense. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This morning, I was praying for our family. I have a notecard with specific requests for William. Things like, “good mentors later on in life” and “good preschool next fall” and “sleep longer in the morning!” At the top of the card is the verse from the Bible that our pastor chose for William when he was dedicated at our church at five-months old: “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1<\/a>). Our pastor knew nothing of William’s unusual strength, and yet he gave me a way to pray for my son, that his strength would be the strength that comes, not from power and self-will, but the strength that comes from grace. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Be strong in grace, my son. Amen. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When William was two months old, I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup. “He’s really tight,” our doctor said. “Yep,” I nodded. “It’s hard for me to get him dressed. His arms are so strong I can hardly pull them away from his body.” He frowned. “He has extremely high muscle tone.” I’ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam the Strong - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William the Strong - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When William was two months old, I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup. “He’s really tight,” our doctor said. “Yep,” I nodded. “It’s hard for me to get him dressed. His arms are so strong I can hardly pull them away from his body.” He frowned. “He has extremely high muscle tone.” I’ve…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-25T09:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S_vSrO1A1HI\/AAAAAAAAAHI\/NE81fc02KUQ\/s320\/IMG_4755.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"William the Strong - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"William the Strong - Thin Places","og_description":"When William was two months old, I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup. “He’s really tight,” our doctor said. “Yep,” I nodded. “It’s hard for me to get him dressed. His arms are so strong I can hardly pull them away from his body.” He frowned. “He has extremely high muscle tone.” I’ve…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-05-25T09:22:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S_vSrO1A1HI\/AAAAAAAAAHI\/NE81fc02KUQ\/s320\/IMG_4755.JPG"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html","name":"William the Strong - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S_vSrO1A1HI\/AAAAAAAAAHI\/NE81fc02KUQ\/s320\/IMG_4755.JPG","datePublished":"2010-05-25T09:22:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-25T09:22:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S_vSrO1A1HI\/AAAAAAAAAHI\/NE81fc02KUQ\/s320\/IMG_4755.JPG","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S_vSrO1A1HI\/AAAAAAAAAHI\/NE81fc02KUQ\/s320\/IMG_4755.JPG"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/05\/william-the-strong.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"William the Strong"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}