Break Through

For quite awhile Faith has been afraid to get on here bicycle. This may be surprising if you knew how much Faith loved to ride her bicycle around our neighborhood in Easley. During the summer, I encouraged her to venture in the brave new world of training wheel free bike riding. At first she was a bit nervous but gave it a good shot. To my surprise Faith kept making excuses why she did not feel it was “time” to try again. She did not have a bad experience the first time but now she wanted no part of her bike. Once we got to San Diego, I told her that she would have to practice five minutes a day. I gave a rousing speech on overcoming fears. To my dismay each of our practice times ended in tears. After a few days, I could not get Faith within three feet of her bike. I could not figure out what went wrong? My child was now permanently scared and hated her bike. Through the fall and winter Faith’s tricked out Barbee bike collected dust and just got in the way of our over crowded garage. It served as a constant reminder of Faith’s fear crippling her from the joy of riding a bike. Several of her classmates and their younger siblings ride their bikes to school. In a sarcastic tone, I would point them out to Faith. She would just hang her head and turn away in shame. How did this turn so bad? This may sound insignificant, but it broke my heart to see my little girl so defeated and the kicker was that I was responsible for most of the wounds. After praying, I went to her and asked forgiveness. I told her that she did not have to ever ride her bike and that it was OK.

Well after a few months, Faith climbed on her bike minus the training wheels yesterday. I lowered her seat so she could use it as a sit down scooter. After a few minutes she was riding down the driveway with her feet up. I told her that I thought she could probably peddle? In a blink of an eye, she put her feet on her peddles took off like a rocket. I cheered and shouted and our other neighbors who had seen the carnage of our summer practice sessions, joined in. It was such a cool moment. Faith beamed with pride. On January 1, 2008, Faith may have learned to ride her bike, but I learned even a more important lesson. The lesson of applying the Gospel of repentance and unconditional love to my children.