Forget the Little Engine That Could

Today my son taught me something. We went roller skating, an activity that I do not participate in. I prefer to spare my tail bone thank you very much. He walked into the rink not knowing how to skate at all but with an expectancy to have a lot of fun on the outing. So we got the skates and on carpet he was having a little difficulty but he could see the rink. On he went and down he went. Over and over he fell even before he got out on the floor. So as a concerned mother I told him to hold on to the wall and go slow. Slip, slip, slide, slide. Down he went, not once, but several hard, quick times. Thank God he is pretty close to the floor, but still it must have hurt to hit hard wood in that way. He got up. He fell. He got up, he fell. Not one time did he even think that he would just give up until he could get some adjustable skates (as was suggested). He just went right back out there falling and slipping and falling. Each time getting up and if I can stretch my imagination setting another goal. On came the hokey pokey. This game is played in the middle of the floor. He was yet again determined to make it to the middle of floor and do the hokey pokey. He struggled, and struggle. One second he was up, the next he was down. My little man finally made it out there (with the first 2 verses over) putting his left elbow out and shaking it all about and hitting the ground. His auntie tried to get him to hold onto the wall behind the line, oh no! He had to go to the line and shake it all about! He made it and he did it falling all the way. Never giving up. He suffered a rug burn from holding on to the carpeted half wall and all the while he was trying to keep his feet under him, he would just keep skating and blow on his arm. Gotta love that kind of spirit. I believe he had a goal in his mind the whole time because after 2 hours of falling an holding walls he left the wall and skated all the way around the rink alone, falling some, but never turning back. We he came back to us, he said "Mama, I did it, I went all the way around!" I'm going to tell you that I was so proud of him. Not because he made it around, that I was just happy about. I was proud because at 6 years old, he set a goal, a far off goal, one that contained repeated pain and failure and went about accomplishing it no matter what. He never asked my opinion. Never whined about how hard it was. He never complained about how long it was taking to reach his goal, he just went about doing it. We could all learn from that sort of determination. What is it that you want in life. How many times are you wiling to fail? How much pain are you wiling to endure? When will you cry out 'uncle'? Will you only venture out on the familiar? Or will you like Nicky, try something new and persevere until you reach it?
With rosy cheeks he left the rink with a feeling of accomplishment. He left nothing to be disappointed about. How freeing that must feel.
So, out with that little engine or that ant and his rubber tree plant, I'm looking at how the Lord gave me an in-house example of how to run a race.