Risking the Rain

It's not often that we get rain around here without thunder and lightning to go with it, but the other day Ethan said, "Mommy! There is no lightning! I want to go play in the rain!" He grabbed his swim trunks, a bucket, and an umbrella and out he went. As I watched him play and I noticed him clinging to the umbrella, I thought about how much alike we are.  

I am a worrier.  I fear things that will most likely never happen.  I take extra precautions, I rarely take big risks, and I like to have a plan...I "cling to the umbrella".  I think we all tend to do this at times, but there is a difference between healthy planning, healthy precaution, and all out paranoia.  For someone who has realized her worst fear (the loss of a child), those fears have at times taken over my life.
 

Unfortunately, Ethan has already learned some of this from me.  But I don't want to be that mom.  I don't want to be the paranoid mom that never lets her child experience the adventure that comes with risk taking. I will have to lead by example and begin to undo some of the damage I've already done.

There is no adventure without risk, no joy without risk, no reward without risk, no love without risk....no fun without risk....

 

 But we're learning to let go of the umbrella...

It doesn't mean we won't fail, it doesn't mean we won't hurt, 

it doesn't mean we won't get drenched...

But there is something magical about the rain...so much to learn...

There will always be the temptation to pick the umbrella up again

 

But what freedom there is in taking a risk...

...in totally surrendering to God's plan!!!

 

Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother's womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well. 

Ecclesiastes 11:4-6