The Walking Stage

The many joys of watching my kids grow up are treasured memories that I try to put down for memory’s sake. Today as I watched my little girl take several steps, did I praise and fill those moments with overwhelmed cheering and happiness to let her know how pleased and happy I was with what she's taking on—her beginning walk of life and learning. The first time I saw her take her first small step, soon ended with a collapse to the ground. I knew this was her start of many more falls yet to come, but that eventually she would learn to walk. But she doesn’t know that. She just realizes that she can get to a step that goes past crawling to one that is on a totally new level that's far better and more advanced than being on the ground. This is something new, this is a challenge! It seems that part of her nature pushes her to want to walk, yet there’s that stumble that comes with it, but hey, to her, it is just part of the whole process. The feeling of balance and finally being able to stand tall and move on her feet far surpasses any fear of falling. That's why she keeps at it over and over again. How many times do I not see life that way! One of the key parts in our lives of challenge, change and growth is the stumbling, the falling, the downward drop. But we look at it as the end, the ultimate failure, the “I can’t ” perspective and give up trying after the first fall or two. But if we realize that it’s all part of building and shaping character, and personal training to go through, we’d anticipate the challenge, we’d relish the fight because we know that’s what we have got to do to get our “walk” down just right and from there tackle the next challenge that comes. One of my favorite example characters in history of persevering and loving the challenge and fight is General George S. Patton. I’m reminded of a line of his where he said “Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory. The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”
--Promise