Learning to Ride

We went for a family walk tonight.  Let me tell you how family walks have changed over the years.  Tim and I used to walk for miles along the Highline Canal Trail just behind our house.  In fact, we did that for years, and it didn't change until Sophia was born.  While I was in labor with Sophia, we walked for miles along that trail.  And then she was born and she joined us on those walks.  We'd put her in the stroller and away we'd go.  Then we moved, Noah was born, we purchased a double stroller, and it still didn't change that much.  We might have shortened our distances just slightly.  Then Phoebe joined us, and our walks began to change.  Not so much because of Phoebe.  I wrap her up in the Moby wrap, and she's good to go for hours.  But more because of the two preschoolers we tow along with us.  Sophia and Noah are not as content to sit in the stroller for miles anymore.  In fact, this marks the first season that Sophia has taken to riding her bike along with us rather than riding in the stroller.  The problems with this are numerous.
1) Her little legs don't last as long as ours.  2) She's still learning to ride (even with the training wheels on) and her bike isn't that great, it has more than a slight lean to the right, and she's fairly slow.  3.) She is easily distracted by ALL things around us.  4.) She frequently spends more time looking at her feet pushing the pedals around than at the path in front of her.  How often do we tell her to look up so that she doesn't crash?  If it weren't for Tim or I reminding her to watch where she's going, she would most definitely ride her bike straight into whatever tree or obstacle should happen to jump in her path.

Tonight, as I walked along behind her, watching her head turn down to watch her feet pedal, I couldn't miss the analogy.  Watching her learn to ride first made me think of Peter stepping out of the boat towards Jesus.  And then I couldn't help continue on and personalize the analogy.  It reminded me so much of myself learning how to navigate this journey we call life.  How often am I so busy concentrating on what I am doing with my life that I take my eyes off of my Heavenly Father in front of me?  I get so absorbed in what I'm doing that I forget to keep my eyes on the Lord and what HE wants me to do.

I love how God can use even the every day moments of life to be such screaming reminders to not be distracted by the world around us and to take our eyes off ourselves and stay focused on what He has planned for us.  And I'm humbled to remember that even after all these years, I am still just learning to ride!