Like Riding a Bike…

April 5th, 2013

Finally the sun has started to shine, and the earth is thawing.  Spring is peeking through, and we’re anxious to greet it! 

Easter weekend was a beautiful time with our family and church, celebrating LIFE.  We went to Brad’s parents Sunday afternoon, and spent sometime playing in the 50 degree sunshine.  Isaac, Henry, and Clark played baseball in the back yard, while Brad kicked the soccer ball back and forth with Brooks.  While enjoying the moment, Brad and I both missed a call from Kristy. We had no idea her house was going up in flames.

As games were winding down, I remembered that Brad’s parents had gotten a bike  for the boys to ride when they visit once they learn to ride without training wheels.  It seemed like the perfect day to try it – with family, on a holiday, in the promising sunshine of spring. {The only thing that was missing was a helmet, which we always require as part of biking, but since Brad was going to be close beside them, we decided to forgo it. I’m not condoning our behavior. I think we all make judgment calls parenting in the moment – some of them we regret and some of them for the better. I hope we can all offer each other a measure of grace in these instances.}

It was a beautiful moment of parenting – them learning to trust, us learning to let go.  And watching them cheer each other and run along side was enough to make me melt to a puddle.

How many things will they learn that will come back to this moment of learning to ride a bike?  Once learned, never forgotten.

I’m sure this it’s just one of many exercises of letting go and allowing them to grow up that lie ahead of us. There will be mistakes along the way – bumps, scrapes, bruises, and pain. And like riding a bike, we’ll pick it up, dust ourselves off, and get back on. But there will be courage, growth, joy, and triumphs that we plan on celebrating well.

And we’ll learn this rhythm of holding on, letting go, and riding this out together, just the six of us.