See You At The Top!

A few days ago we were at a local amusement park for an afternoon of fun with the kids.  My daughter told us that she wanted to climb the rock wall that is pictured above.  After insisting that she was too light, too short, to young and basically any other excuse I could muster, we relented and let her try.  She was tired from a long day at school and had never climbed before, so I figured she would struggle to pull herself off of the ground and would soon give up.  As you can see from the picture, she nearly made it to the top of the 32 foot wall!  A few days later she made another series of attempts and was able to ring the buzzer at the top of the wall!  I learned a few lessons that I thought I would share.

The first lesson is that we need to avoid making assumptions.  How often do we discourage our kids from even trying something we think they can't accomplish?  How many dreams have our assumptions killed?  I assumed my daughter didn't have the physical strength to make it to the top and almost prevented her from reaching a milestone in her young life.

The next lesson is that persistence pays off.  How many adventures have we missed out on by giving up too soon?  My daughter would have never reached the top had she given up and not repeatedly begged to try.  She would have never experienced the thrill of scaling a wall that is about ten times her size!

The third and final lesson is that we need to have faith in ourselves and in our God given abilities; even when nobody else believes.  How many times have we given up for lack of belief in ourselves?  In spite of my lack of faith in her, my daughter believed that she could climb that wall.  She stared the challenge in the face, ignored the obvious difficulty of the task and proved that she could do what only she believed she could do.

So, don't be a dream killer, keep pressing forward in spite of the naysayers, believe in yourself and we will see you at the top!

Thanks for reading!  Click this link to catch up on an old post that may encourage you if you think you are  insignificant:  http://jonathanpantages.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-drum-line.html

Do You Have A Bird Brain?

Today I went to the neighborhood park to continue my recently revived exercise routine.  Real exercise enthusiasts would consider my activity a leisurely stroll, but to me it was a serious workout!  As I ran-(ok walked) on the cement trail, I came across the scene depicted in the picture you see in this post.  Most of you know that I tend to find messages in unique scenarios that I come across in life.  Today was no different.

I noticed that the ducks, or possibly geese were huddled up together just outside the fence to the ponding basin that borders the park.  They were all obviously birds, but as you can see in the picture, there were a couple of brown or gray birds, a black bird and one that was white.  It was interesting to me that they didn't seem to mind that they were all different colors.  They were perfectly content, at least from my perspective, to hang out together in spite of their obvious outward differences.  Beneath all of their feathers were creatures simply known as birds.

It struck me that perhaps having a bird brain was not so bad after all.  Apparently a bird's brain is wise enough to see beyond the differences of other birds and realize that they were all birds.  They realized that it was better to be together with birds that were different, than to be alone.  They realized that separating each other by feather color or bird type was not necessary.  Apparently the brain of a bird is smart enough not to worry about what other birds may have said about birds of another color or other species of birds. 

I could go on, but I think you get the point.  Us humans are supposed to be wiser than birds, but from the way we treat people of different political parties, different religious beliefs, different races or anyone who is just different, having a bird brain appears to be a better option.  Obviously I'm being a bit sarcastic to make a point, but do you have a bird brain, or do you simply have a human brain that is incapable of seeing beneath the surface of our uniqueness and simply see that in spite of our differences, we are all human?

Thanks for reading!