When Kaylie was about five and Tori was seven, we went on an Indian Princess camping trip. Many of the girls on the trip brought their bicycles so we spent the weekend dodging gangs of Princess biker chicks.
When we got home, Kaylie asked me to take the training wheels off of her bike and, within in a day, she was riding sans training wheels. About a week later, Tori (the older one…) gave in to the inevitable and reluctantly asked me to take off her training wheels also and she was riding free within a day or two. (Sorry, I don’t have any actual pictures of them riding)
A couple of important points:
- Both of them asked me to take off the training wheels. I could have tried to force them to learn to ride without training wheels. This might have worked on Kaylie, but Hell would have frozen over before Tori even got on another bike.
- Kaylie learned how to ride a bike because she saw something cool and wanted a part of it. It was hard for her to walk around that weekend when everyone else was riding.
- Tori learned how to ride a bike because circumstances dictated that she should. Of course, she could have eschewed bike riding forever (I LOVE that word), but believe me, if your younger sibling learns something before you do, there are few more powerful motivators in the world.*
- Now, they both know how to ride a bike.
How can you take off the training wheels of your life? Some people ask God to take them off and others take off the wheels by themselves. Either way, the end result is the same, they both know how to ride.Before we go on, a verse: Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. James 1:22
Do not just listen to what God is saying in your heart right now, do what he says! Don’t just read this blog and file it away to think about another day. Don’t treat this as another intellectual exercise, take some action!
Here are some ideas to prime the pump:
- My friends Jim and Kim Jack and Joe and Jodi Mata are doing an apartment church with Mission Arlington every Sunday. This week, they’re passing out school supplies and need help. Email Jim and tell him you’ll help. Even better, go to your church’s early service and then go to church with the Jacks and the Matas this Sunday. If you can speak Spanish, you would get an opportunity to practice.
- Blood n Fire Dallas is doing their neighborhood BBQ this Saturday, 8/16/08 @ 10:30 AM. You could help serve food, talk to people who need encouragement, sort clothes, pick up trash, whatever. Email me or John Wallace (BnF’s pastor) or just show up. It’s at the Compassion House, 1818 Park Row, Dallas.
- Sign up to go on a Bill Glass prison weekend. After you do this, it’ll be hard to go back to the way you were before… There’s an event on 11/13-15; you would only have to take off one day of work.
- Sign up to go on a mission trip. Either talk to your missions pastor or email me.
- Ask God what he wants you do to. After you ask, sit quietly and wait for an answer, then do it!
*I still remember when my younger sister learned how to tie her shoes first. Oh, the agony and humiliation I felt, even as a five-year-old!! I learned how to tie my shoes in record time.
