What Are You Afraid Of?
In January, our families had the opportunity to spend New Year's Day together at a beautiful house located on about 40 acres of land. Behind the house, the yard sloped down into a small pond, low from the dry year we had. The ground was covered with pine needles and crunchy leaves...beautiful landscape but tough for little feet to navigate through.
Our nine kiddoes had a blast exploring, riding four-wheelers, shooting their BB guns and putting kindling on the fire (all safety precautions in place!).
Later in the afternoon, Leah's two-year-old Ryan was carrying a football out back, and as I watched, he started toward that slippery, pine-needle covered slope. Leah was standing at the bottom of the slope at the water's edge. I called out to her to keep a close eye because I was afraid he was going to slip and roll right down into the water. Well, slip he did, but it wasn't him who rolled down into the water, it was the football. He wasn't about to lose that football, so he began running after it, oblivious to mine and his mom's cries to stop as we both tried to catch up to him...because he wasn't stopping!
Straight into the shallow water he went with total abandon as he literally dove after that ball. Leah grabbed him up, and he was perfectly fine besides being wet and cold (which we remedied right away). He didn't even shed one tear, the expression on his face was sheer determination, like he had blinders on...there was no thought, no fear, just one goal: GET THAT BALL!
Can you remember the last time you "ran after" something with no thought, no fear, just total abandon? What's standing in your way? Are you afraid to get your feet wet? Being a momma isn't easy...it requires getting your feet wet once in a while. Mother without fear...you can always change your shoes, but you can't turn back the clock.
