Training Wheels

She packed up the car with kids, a picnic and William's bike and Jennifer headed to Memorial park to help William, almost five, learn to ride his bike without the training wheels. It sure is comforting to have those wheels but there comes a time when you have to grow up and grow out and spin those tires without dependency. It was a brave endeavor and not quite as successful as was hoped for yet but he tried and glided and tried and pedaled and is learning the concept.

What exactly is the concept: keep pedaling, focus forward, and try try again. It is hard to stay focused and keep pedaling when you are riding on a new set of circumstances. The training wheels have been such a constant means of balance and security and now they are gone and the only dependency that you have as a bike rider are the two wheels that are below you. It comes down to balancing and pedaling. Isn't that true of life. It comes down to the mindset of focusing and the physical act of balancing and pedaling of two wheels.

We start with trainers, earthly teachers (parents, friends, pastors even our children) who teach us how to navigate turns, and what to do when something powerful comes barreling down the road of our lives, and we learn as we go, and work with what we have. Soon after we have experienced out many trials and opportunities, we are able to let loose of our earthly trainers and put our confidence in our heavenly ones.

If you think of the two wheels of a bike as truth and faith and how, if we pedal in a steady motion on God's path of the straight and narrow, it really does not matter what bumps we approach or what detours we are forced to take, we can maintain our balance throughout our ride. It is when we look back or allow fear to overtake our thoughts that we lose momentum and confidence. There is great security in having one hold the seat of the bike and run to keep up with the rider in an effort to help keep it level. But in the learning stages, don't you remember that too often we are more focused on making sure the one holding on will not let go rather than looking forward to our quest for independence?

One thing we can depend on is that God will never truly let us go and get out of his sight. He will allow us the freedom to make choices that sometimes end in mistakes, wobble on unchartered territory, and strive for independence but as he helps us to activate the wheels of our faith and truth, we will continue to become more confident in our ride.

We have had trainers who God has gracefully put in our paths, and through them we have gained confidence in God's word and his ways. But there comes a time when we have to ride the path solo, with pumped up tires through God's strength and wisdom. Sometimes we are riding solo and other times we are flanked with faithful riders who too are finding their way, but God is always riding with us. The riding process of learning, testing, falling and having to get back up again is one that takes perseverance and tenacity and a willingness to tackle something clearly out of our comfort zone.

We have to beware that this feat of learning to ride through life, is one for us to tackle personally. Nobody can do it for us; with us yes, but not for us. We can have help, and certainly do need help, but when we fall, we alone are to be held responsible, not the one who is holding the seat. If we have a true desire to conquer our fears, and pedal toward the challenges that are before, we have to depend not on others but on the wheels of faith and truth we have in God himself. For he gives us the opportunities to get better and be better, as we practice balancing over and over again on his wheels of strength.

Training wheels; they are a good thing for a while but the time comes when we have to have the courage to trust what we have learned and try to ride in the truth that we have been taught and the faith that we have gathered.

Hebrews 12:11
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Dear Lord, riding a bike is such a hard thing to learn, oh but when we do we can always get right back on a bike even after years have passed. Let it be the same way with our faith and trust in the truth that we know. Help us to get it and learn it and always be able to ride on those wheels no matter what the circumstance, situation or challenge is that is before us. Amen

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!