FALSE STARTS

I truly enjoy watching the Olympics, especially, swimming, gymnastics and track.  I love to see the fierce competition in each event with the world’s best for a chance at winning the gold medal.  At every Olympics game there are those who beam with pride and excitement at their stellar performance, whether they qualified for a gold, silver or bronze medal.  There are those athletes, who are disappointed if they get a silver or bronze instead of the gold they anticipated.  Finally there are those athletes who are truly devastated because they fail to qualify for a medal.  I am not the one competing, but any athlete that qualifies to participate in the Olympics has my admiration and respect.
Each time that I watch the Olympics I cannot help but feel sorry for those athletes who get disqualified from an event for making a false start or for dropping their baton.  Due to the high caliber of the Olympics it is anticipated that athletes should know the rules and hence getting a second chance if they do make a false start or drop the baton is not considered.  Can you imagine an athlete training for long hours over at least three years to qualify for the Olympics and in the end getting  disqualified due to a false start or dropping their baton.  How devastating, not only for the athlete but their team and their country.

Have you ever wondered what would happen to us if we got disqualified when we made a mistake in our parenting or allow things to fall along the way as we got side tracked with other things?  Can you imagine waiting for another 4 years to redeem ourselves and get back to the role of parenting?  This could be devastating for us as well as our children.

In our role as a mother, we are involved in a race.  Winning this race is not determined by speed, but instead by our patience or endurance.  Heb. 12:1-Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

As mothers we often make a number of false starts with how we raise our children, we sometimes neglect to train them up in the way they should go, sometimes we abandon our roles for other roles that seem more attractive.  We have the rule book (the bible) but ignore it and try to do things how we believe it should be done.  Wherever we miss the boat, if we choose we can always return to the race for a fresh start.  Some of us start off well, but stop along the way, and still we are allowed to get up, dust off and keep going.  Remember it is not speed but patience and endurance and the person who makes the calls (Jesus) wants to see you succeed, not waiting for a chance to disqualify you.

In His Service,

 Vilma