I went to check on Ayla this morning because she was crying. I thought it might be the typical pop in the binki and exit quietly routine. When I entered her she was on her hands and knees and just smiled at me. She was trying to climb up the rails on the crib. Last Sunday when we checked on her in the morning we walked in to be amazed at here standing in her crib holding on to the rail with a big smile saying “Look at what I can do!” As with all people once you can learn to something fun and challenging you keep going.
This morning she was trying hard to make it up to the top. She was tire and not have any success. I want to jump in an help, but knew she could make it and just smiling back and clapping for her. She would get to the point of raising up only to slip back down time after time. She was getting frustrated, but never stopped trying. I looked at her feet and noticed she wasn’t getting any traction because her feet weren’t in the feet part of her sleeper, but in the leg area. I fixed for her and up she went again, with a big thank you daddy smile. After a couple of tries she made to the top of her little Mt. Everest with all the pride and joy of a champion.
It made me think about how many time as adults we give on something we know we can do only after a couple of failures. As children all we know “I can do this so I am going to do this” We get conditioned to the idea of difficult and can’t over time by society and those around us. We have all seen children do difficult things with ease, they don’t know something is “difficult” until we tell them. They just go and do.
Just like fixing her pant legs, we also need a little help. I am sure that on numerous occassions God has fixed my footing without me even knowing it.
Go out today and try something again for the first time. This time with a child-like effort.
Joseph Cortez 