YOU ARE ALL SPECIAL
 A Skit by Barbara Baker

A Conversation between Moses and God.
 

GOD: Moses I have called you to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt into the promised land.

MOSES: But . . . God, I can't do it. I stutter and am afraid to talk to people. People will not want to hear what I have to say when I cannot get the words out. They will not follow me. They will run away from me or talk over me, not interact with me, or not include me in their conversations. If I can't get their attention, how can I possibly lead them. Adonai, you have chosen the wrong person for the job. Please, choose someone else!

GOD: I chose you to be my spokesperson. Who said you speak differently?

MOSES: People call me different. They make fun of me. They call me handicapped. They tell me I cannot do anything verbally. They write me off.

GOD: Moses, you are not handicapped. I made people with different colors, abilities, and challenges. Some people have difficulty walking, seeing, and/or hearing while others have problems thinking, learning, or controlling their emotions. You have difficulty speaking, at times, that's all. Don't listen to what people tell you. In my sight you speak fine. I don't care if you stutter on every word. The problem with people is that they compare themselves with one another. Despite your stuttering, you have the qualities to lead the Jewish people by speaking to them and by taking charge of the situation.

MOSES: Every time I open my mouth I am afraid that I am going to stutter. I am ashamed of it and pretend I don't stutter. I try to hide my stuttering by changing words, by not saying sounds and words, by speaking too quickly, and by not speaking at all.

GOD: The more that you pretend that you do not stutter, and the more you try to hide it, the more you will tense your vocal chords and stutter.

MOSES: What's wrong with me? Why do I stutter?

GOD: Your stuttering does not just happen to you. You cause it because you have learned to tighten your vocal chords when you speak. You have developed an uncomfortable way of speaking which with intense practice and with a positive mental attitude, you can change. Because when you were a child and had initially struggled to say the words, people often reacted to you in impatient or mean ways. As a result, you have learned to fear words and sounds and cover up any disfluencies that you might have. There is nothing wrong with the speech center in your brain; nothing wrong with your speech muscles, nor with your personality and intelligence. You aren't more anxious or insecure than anyone else.

MOSES: I feel different. I have so many hidden thoughts and feelings about stuttering.

GOD: Yep! Your stuttering is like an iceberg. The part above the surface; the part which people hear and see is by far the smaller part. The larger part is the part underneath; the shame, the fear, the guilt, and all those other feelings that you have when you try to speak a simple sentence and become blocked.

MOSES: What should I do about it?

GOD: There are a number of things you can learn to do to relax your vocal chords and to learn to become less afraid of stuttering. First you can learn fluency skills such as controlling your breathing-speaking cycle, saying the first sounds of the words assertively, thinking about what you want to say before you say it, and saying a few words at one time.

MOSES: I can't speak like this. It is too complicated. If I make a mistake and stutter, people will not wait for me to speak. They will interrupt me.

GOD: People often do not know how to react to a person who stutters and want to avoid the situation that causes them discomfort. In the process, they unknowingly avoid you. To overcome your fear of stuttering, and to help make your listeners more relaxed talking to you, get your stuttering out into the open. One way to do this is to stutter on purpose, in any easy way, on sounds which you are not afraid of. In this way, people will know that you stutter and this will make it easier for you to use the fluency skills that I just told you about. This voluntary stuttering will also help you to reduce your fear of stuttering, will lessen the accompanying tension, and will help you to relax your vocal chords.

MOSES: God, I can't do that. I am afraid. Why can't you just heal me from this terrible affliction?

GOD: The reason that I can't heal you is because there is nothing wrong with you. You are not sick. You just have learned to speak differently. Also, if I took your stuttering away without your effort, you wouldn't learn anything. I want you to learn to persevere and to trust Me. I will always be here to help you as you struggle through the process of overcoming your stuttering. Think of it as a challenge, something to conquer rather than as a curse upon you or as you said, an affliction.

MOSES: I am different because I can't talk.

GOD: You have to learn that your identity is not in external characteristics. It is not in how you talk, walk, see, or hear, in being perfect, or in what people think of you. Those things do not matter.

MOSES: When I speak, people say the words for me all the time. People don't want to hear what I have to say. They don't want to talk to me.

GOD: You will speak much better if you are open about your stuttering. Rather than believing that you cannot use the fluency or the stuttering easily skills, teach people how to interact with you. Create a positive environment for yourself. Give people a chance to enter into your experience of stuttering. The more you accept your stuttering and people's reactions to it and the more you stop struggling against it, the better you will speak and the less you will stutter. Stop fighting against it! If you speak, people will get to know you and will overlook any physical differences that you might have. Moses, do you always stutter? Are there times you don't?

MOSES: I do not stutter when I sing or read aloud in unison with other people. I do not stutter when I talk to animals or to myself. I do not stutter when I feel in control of the speaking situation. The stuttering changes from situation to situation and from moment to moment. Sometimes, I can speak like everyone else and sometimes I sound like a person who can't talk at all. God, please allow Aaron, my brother, to talk for me.

GOD: Moses, you can speak. If you keep avoiding speaking situations and stop trying to speak, you will always have this fear of stuttering and speaking and the more your vocal chords will lock. But the more you practice talking in fearful situations by using the fluency and/or stuttering easily skills, the more relax you will become. The fearful situations will gradually become less fearful for you. Go forward in the face of fear, realizing that I am always by your side. This time, Aaron can help you by talking for you, but next time you can speak for yourself. Remember, your identity is in Me and not in other people's opinions of you. Everyone has problems and challenges, either external and/or internal. No one is perfect. I created people to help one another and to encourage one another, not to criticize or to compare themselves to each other. Try to accept others despite their differences and do not label them or think of them as incapable because they are no t like you, for YOU ARE ALL SPECIAL IN MY SIGHT!

Submitted 3/13/07 by the author.