Fear?

Hannah had swimming lessons last week. We put her in private lesson because she is very, very, very nervous in the deep water. We'd put her in group lessons a couple of months ago, and she failed, which is fine, so we wanted her to have some one on one time with a teacher. She did really well the first day, when they spent time in the shallow pool. The next day, they moved into the deep pool, and things just went downhill. She did alright that first day in the deep pool, but the next day, she was a wreck! After her lessons were over, we went into the change rooms, and she just sat with me and sobbed! I must admit, I shed a couple of tears with her as well. She was so stressed about the deep water...so fearful that she would sink. We talked a lot about it, and it came out that she thought that we were all lying to her - that we would let her sink.

It was interesting as we talking, some of the things that came out. I realized that although it had everything to do with swimming, it really had nothing to do with swimming. She was just fearful. We talked a lot about God, and how He doesn't want us to be fearful, but she wasn't grasping the bigger picture. After I dropped her off at home, I jetted out really quickly to our church, where I knew some ladies had been praying. I got there just as they were finished, and after chatting a couple of minutes, they found out the story and started to pray for Hannah. As the were praying, not only for her, but for Art & I as well, I came to realize that I have some of my own things in my life that I am fearful about.... It was interesting to realize that Hannah is the same as me - her outlet is just different. For her, it's swimming in deep water. For me, it's finances, and our business. I have been making decisions, or not making some decisions, based on fear. I don't like that. At all. She is mirroring me, just her fear is of something else. I don't want to leave my daughters a legacy of fear. I want to leave them a legacy of faith. I went and apologized to Hannah for being fearful, and not trusting God in some things. So, I've made some decisions this week about some things that I need to do, to live by faith, not by fear.

Consequently, when Hannah went to her last swimming lessons the next day, she did AMAZING! Her teacher didn't know what happened...she floated in the deep pool by herself, swam by herself under water. It was so cool to watch God answer our prayers!