This week I had an opportunity to do that in a major way. The above picture is the rock wall my daughters were able to climb. Now, I admit it! I was amazed! My 13 year old climbed up the left side, even right over the wedge part and was up the entire 50 foot wall in 3 minutes and 16 seconds! That to me was amazing! Then my 12 year old (with a broken finger and her left hand in a partial cast!) tore up the right side in a very respectable 5 minutes and 40 seconds which is amazing when you consider she was only able to use 3 fingers on her left hand!
Of course, I tried the wall. I really did. I managed to make it about 15 feet up but just couldn't find solid toe and finger holds and it was not happening. But I REALLY wanted to be able to zip line down. So they opened the "pole" which sounded so easy! Until I did it!
See the pole that my friend Todd is standing next to and a kid is part way up? It had TINY little staples sticking about 3-4 inches out of it. They were only about enough to get about 3 of your fingers into for a hand hold. It took me a LONG time (probably 15 minutes!) but I did it! I hauled my 220 pounds up that pole. All 50 feet of it! Then I stood at the top and wondered why in the world I was up so high! YIKES! See, I was NEVER afraid of heights! Then I had children! I keep seeing my kids falling off or me dropping them...even if it has never happened...I can see it! It is so scary! As a result, if my children are not around, I do okay, but if my kids are around, heights terrify me. Of course, my niece (close enough to my kid!) was up on the platform waiting on me! She kept looking over the edge! Freaking me out! I think the hardest thing I ever had to do was sit back into my harness, close my eyes (because I was NOT leaping over the edge and watching the ground come up at me!) and lean forward to go down the zip line! I wanted to do it! I knew the zip would be fun (even though I screamed, a LOT!) but that was SO hard to lean forward in faith! I had faith that the cord was strong enough to hold me and that it was far enough off the ground that I wouldn't make it touch the ground and break my legs (I admit it, they were tucked up really high!).
And you know what! I learned something! My leap of faith (okay, lean forward in desperation) showed my children that I could do something like that! Then later I had the opportunity to talk to them about faith! I told them that Faith in God is somewhat similar. You might not be able to see where you are headed, but you TRUST that God is there, holding you up and not letting you fall. His grace says that He loves you, even if you climb the pole in confidence and then freak out and lose trust at the top! He patiently waits for you to be ready to trust again.
Was it hard for me to do...physically...YES! Mentally...YES YES YES! Am I ready to do it again? Um..NOT! But I am THANKFUL I did it! I am glad that I took that step of faith! Glad I set that example for my children and created that teachable moment.
Have you ever done something you weren't really sure about at the time and later you were thankful you did?
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