Children Learn What They Live

Let me begin by sharing two lines from a poem written by Dorothy Law Nolte
If a child lives with encouragement. She learns confidence.
If a child lives with security. She learns to have faith.
The complete poem can be found here.

Recently my husband and I attended our teen age daughters cheerleading competition, which we have done every time her team has competed for the past four years. She is a flyer on the team. Meaning she is one of the girls they toss up or hold up into the air while she performs gymnastic type moves and then they catch her as she comes down. It’s not my cup of tea, give me a softball, a bat and a glove and I’m happy but this is the sport she chose, so we 100% support her.

This competition was a bit different because we had spent several hours the day before in the emergency room having her checked out after she had fallen out of a stunt and hit her head. Also two days prior it had happened as well. So within three days she had fallen twice from the same stunt. After a very long assessment of my daughters’ health and some lengthy discussion, the emergency room Doctor gave Taylor permission to cheer – just for the competition if she took the week off following. As loving parents we were nervous but we did not want to instill fear in her. She LOVES cheering, in fact during “cheer season” she eats, sleeps and breathes cheering.

We arrived at the gym about 15 minutes before the event began and she came over with her coach to explain to us that she had once again fallen during the same stunt however not on her head and that she still wanted to go on. My husband reluctantly gave the okay.

So the girls took their places and the music began. I was actually sweating and praying, sweating and praying as I watched each step they took, it was like slow motion. Up she went and perfectly preformed her Scorpion. Up she went again and perfectly performed her Basket Toss. Up again in to the Double Twist (this was the move they had been struggling with) and down she came in to the hands of her teammates and safely to the mat.

I looked at my husband with giant tears in my eyes and said, “I am so proud of her. That took so much courage and trust. I don’t think I could have done that” and he said, “Yes you would have. Where do you think she has learned to have courage like that? It’s from you Babe, She’s been watching you!
I praise God that I know I can do all things through Him – and that I have been a living witness to my daughter.