It always seems that we go from winter to summer in one quick week! The flowers are blooming, the grass is green, and the swimming pool is ready to fulfill its job of making kids happy and healthy for another summer. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the million times I will hear, "Two Mama, watch this!" but, ready or not, the time is here! In fact, the kids swam over the weekend and in spite of their blue lips, they had a great time.
Every season we start the year off with diving lessons. The first few "watch me's" are of leftover skills from the previous summer, then my little swimmers realize they are ready for some new tricks. The begging begins for me to teach them how to dive. The water is too cold for me in the spring and I refuse get in cold water (wisdom comes with old age) so I have a great excuse to join the ranks of most aging coaches and teach by telling instead of doing. It's true at one time I could perform a dive that might rate a 3 ½ or a 4 by a teenager's standards, but now I'm happy to impress a group of freezing seven to ten year olds with my wisdom alone (yeah, right!).
The dive of choice right now is a back dive. They have all pretty much mastered a front dive, but a back dive is still challenging. So, my expertise is needed. I start by having the kids put their toes right on the edge of the board and then just bend backwards. At this point, I hold them by the waist until their little bodies are almost bend in half (oh, to be young again) and then I drop them in the water. The purpose for this is to let them experience the feeling of going off something backwards, even if it is in slow motion. They have to learn to trust what their body is doing. Then I give them a little lecture about successful diving (I'm so impressive, don't you think?). I tell them there is a secret to diving and here it is. You have to FOLLOW YOUR HEAD and your head has to do the right thing. That's it. The secret to a successful dive is to let your head be the leader. Pretty simple, isn't it? But, it's true. Whatever your head does, your body will have to do. It's only logical. Your head can't go one way and your body another. The proof of this being true is in a dive that's gone wrong. The dreaded belly flop or back buster is a result of your body following your head doing the wrong thing. The mechanics of that happening is this, the diver's head is going in the right direction, doing the right thing, then panic sets in and their head tries to go another direction thinking it had made a mistake, the body follows and "ouch." The result is not pleasant—it usually involves some red blotches on the body. Had the diver just let his head guide his body in the correct direction, and trusted that his head was doing the right thing, everything would have been fine.
Recently as I was giving the kids one of these lectures when I suddenly realized how true this philosophy is in our Christian walk. Think about Paul's words in Ephesians when he wrote about Christ being the head of the church. He said, "God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church." If Christ is our head, then it makes sense that if we follow him, our lives will be a lot smoother. The belly flops and back busters of life will be kept to a minimum and we'll score a big 10 on the heavenly scorecards. But there is more. Later on in Ephesians 5, we're told to be imitators of Christ. Eventually, the kids begin to beg me to show them a dive. I'm sure part of it is to see if I can really do it, but mostly it's because imitation is a great way to learn to do something correctly. For now, I just tell them I'll do it when it gets warmer (maybe they'll forget). The principle, however, is the correct one. We all learn better when we SEE what we have to do. The scriptures are full of examples of Godly living. We can actually SEE the actions of Christ by reading about His life and His plan for our life.
Once we understand that Christ is our head and by following Him our lives will be better, then we should strive look to His perfect example to show us how to perform or behave. Every dive that is executed with the head first still isn't a perfect dive, but it's closer. But when we follow Christ, God's hand is on our back guiding our every step and helping us reach perfection in Him. There will be no perfection outside of Him, but in Him---a perfect 10—everytime. And, guess what, you can yell, "Watch this" to God a million times a day and He'll look---every single time.
Have a great week, looking to the Lord for wisdom, guidance, peace, patience, or anything else you need this week.
Hugs, Chrys
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