All summer long I have been telling Faith that she was going to ride her bike without the training wheels before going back to school. All summer long she has been fighting me about keeping them on. It has been reminding me of last summer when she did this about jumping off a diving board into a pool. She finally did by the end of the season. Now, we can’t keep her off of one.
Sunday, before we even got going, it was “daddy leave my training wheels on!” Once we got to the Greenway, the boys took off on their bike and scooter, but Faith didn’t want to move. When I went to check on her, she was crying. I asked her, “Faith, what’s wrong?”
She pointed to her training wheel and broke into sobs, “It’s broken, I can’t ride my bike.” The nut that holds her wheel in place had come loose and each time she sat on her bike the training wheel collapsed. I reached down and tightened it as much as I could, consoled her and we got moving. As fast as we did, she began to cry again as her wheel collapsed a second time. Again, I tightened it, she sat down and again it fell.
Not having a wrench to truly tighten the wheel down with, told her that she can do it. That she can ride her bike without the the training wheel. That I knew she could do it, that I believed in her. The boys were now out of sight as they didn’t know this was going on and they just kept going. But I stayed in that boat with her.
Then the spirit grabbed me and I held her by the arm and as I gave her a push, I peddled my own bike and told her to peddle hers. We were now riding side by side. I kept reminding her that the more she peddled the easier it is to ride and stay balanced. We kept moving. She would lean into me and I would tell her that she can do it, that she can ride her bike on her own and she would lean back the other direction.
We caught up to the boys and took a rest. She was still tearing, but not crying. Like the first time, I took her by the arm, gave a little push, and we began riding along side each other again. She found a good peddling rhythm and I could feel her not leaning into me as much as we kept on. I began to loosen my grip on her arm.
By the time we had gone as far along the path as we said we would go, I had moved my hand onto her back. We stopped for a rest and turned around to head back to the parking lot. Again, I took her arm, gave a push and this time I pushed her ahead of me before getting myself going. She took off. I rode up to her as she was slowing down and put my hand on her back. She looked up at me and said “where were you?”
“I’m right here honey. You can do it, you can ride your bike on your own. I’m going to let you before we get back to the car. Before we get back to the car, I’m going to let go and you are going to ride your bike on your own.”
“OK” was the only reply.
We ride a couple hundred feet before I took my hand off her back and she rode the rest of the way back to the car on her own, broken training wheel and all. When we caught up to her brothers, they saw her riding alone, Tony, her older brother was very proud of her and said so as she passed him. She rode like a champ with a smiling face, peddling the whole way.
This is what a subluxation-free world looks like. People helping people; instilling confidence, genius, and love into others lives. People picking people up. People holding onto the faith in what is possible and is. When we are clear we do this for others because we are in communication with God and with God all things are possible. We do this for ourselves also, we constantly and consistently tell ourselves that I CAN.
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