Lessons from the pool

Dave and I out of desperation and not wanting to keep telling Noah "no" decided to take him to the pool tonight. It was a splendid idea. He had a great time. He is such a water baby. He puts his face under, kicks his feet, "jumps" in off the side. He LOVES it! Occassionally, he would lose his footing and go under. Dave and I would wait a second just to see what he would do. He would struggle, but instinct always kicked in and he would stick his head up for air and work to find his footing. Now, before you call DCFS, we were right there and never let him struggle longer than a few seconds. We wanted to teach him that although the water is a lot of fun, it can also be dangerous. While I was experiencing this difficult non-coddling as a parent it made me think of how this applies to my own life. In my swimming pool of life I sometimes lose my footing and feel like I am "sinking". Sometimes we need to struggle through it a little to realize the value at the end. (You know all those character building lessons) Noah came out at the end just fine with no tears, but hopefully a deeper appreciation for the water. Like Dave and I were for Noah, God is right there ready to pull us out. I got the impression of Him standing over me encouraging me, but ready to pull me out when it became evident that it was too much.

Thank you Jesus for realizing that sometimes we have to struggle through things in order to grasp their importance and fully appreciate the end result more. Thank you too that you are always there to pull us out when we need it.