I kind of got this hypothesis from it: The path from lovable to admirable ties to; transforming limitations with potential, and voluntarily stepping outside one’s comfort zone to overcome them. My thoughts went back to the early years with our puppy Sam and granddaughter Sofia. Both so innocent and vulnerable. You’d have to be engaged 100 percent with them, or their curiosity paths would lead to more trouble than you’d be able to get out of. It was their limitation that was lovable.

At the other end of the age spectrum, I had my mother on a recent call, related to me an appointment she had with the eye specialist. She has macular degeneration, but it’s compounded with cataracts now. The doctor, too young and attractive for empathy, matter-of-factly dropped the bomb that she could no longer drive, that she would need to
come back for 2 treatments over the next 3 months, topping off that she will put her on the cataract surgery wait-list that was already over a year. I could feel my heart sink, and reflecting on this I was wondering why did I feel this way? I could paint the picture of her locked down in her home; COVID restrictions still hovering over, getting one maybe two single visits per week; her fading hearing; quilting, and reading have vanished from the table. This is sensory deprivation plus here. There’s no fault here on her part, she’s just vulnerable. They say love is putting the needs of others ahead of yours. Well, this was kicking in for mom.

I’m a member of Toastmasters. I joined a couple of years ago to help me with my COMM course on public speaking. Quite often they’re short of speakers, and me being rusty, and still needed considerable improvement, I took the challenge. Giving myself about two weeks lead time, I set myself to present this topic. I mapped out my thoughts and connected with a couple of friends, to have an evening’s discussion on it. My wife Nancy reviewed my drafts and eventually it was as ready as it could for the deadline.
(nothing like the limitations of a deadline to produce something)

Here’s the speech:

I’d like to show you some pictures of Sofia, Sam, and Great Grandpa. These are some of the lovable beings in my life. While you’re looking at them, take a mental note of what you’re thinking, what do they have in common.

For me, as a parent, there’s this weight of responsibility to care, protect, and build them up.
Why? Well, they’re Vulnerable and Limited.

• There’s accidents to try to prevent.
• Healthy meals to prepare so they eat properly.
• Watching out for bullies or people who could harm them.
• Being a nurse when they’re sick or hurt.
• Staying involved so they don’t get taken advantage of.

The list goes on as you can well imagine.
What if we could have a world where you could fix each one of these limitations?

• Sofia is smaller than other kids, so, let’s make her 10 feet tall.
• She’s breakable, that’s not good. So we’ll replace the breakable parts. Make her parts out of
  something impermeable, like titanium, something robotic.
• Might as well throw in replaceable parts to.
• She’s not as smart, yet, as she could be. or as wise. So, replace her limited intelligence with a robotic
  intelligence, an artificial intelligence that knows as much as others might.

Problem solved? No!

How should we look at Limitations then?
Is Limitation the means to unlock the potential within us for limitless growth?
Let’s work through a couple examples:
EG 1 – Driving your own car has lots of limitations, so I researched this.

• How many rules do you have to know and apply, to insure you’ll pass a Driver’s test?
• Well, it turns out it’s over 350.
• Do you think it would be better to not have all these restrictions?
• Just take your Monster truck out of the driveway and take the shortest path to your destination.
• In the early days of automobiles, it was like that.

• Eventually restrictions and limitations were applied, and safety increased until you get to where we are today.

• Now If you choose to dispense with these limitations, safety dissolves away.

EG 2 – Assume you now become blind

• This is a major limitation and would be a hard pill to swallow at first.
• How would you look at your situation?

• There’s the path of resentment, which is justifiable, but not helpful.
• Accepting this limitation opens up other options.
• Your brain compensates and re-wires itself to ramp up the other senses.

• I worked with 2 blind programmers at an Insurance company. One was amazing, the other was OK, but handy capped by a controlling / criticizing lead; he quit and went over to the grounds keeping department and he did amazingly.

Looking into these 2 examples, I’m seeing a pattern. I see more possibilities surfacing, ones you could
never expect.

So you’re God, you wake up and say:

• Well now, what should I do today? You’ve already done everything, so nothing new.
• Maybe I should work out. No need, you’re already the most powerful.
• This is getting boring.
• Maybe I could try improving something. Nope, all your work is already perfect.
• Maybe I could go someplace I haven’t been able to go to before. Nada, already been everywhere.

You can see, being at this final state, having aced all your limitations, seems to make for a bleak future. Then I thought, what about the Son of God. He’s a God, but with Limitation; I’m thinking they were self-imposed. After all, he allowed himself to be setup, captured, and tried on false crimes. He didn’t utter a defense and then got crucified. Christianity seems to love him for that.

Conclusion
After listening to all this, are you thinking differently about limitations? To me, it kind of looks like limits open our potential, and as we work on these, we become more than we are, and this seems to be limitless. Is this our eternal progression? Also, people seem to be ok with our limits, and love us more with our limitations. All this seemed to fit nicely with this scripture I came across at the end of my research:
Ether 12:27: And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Thank you