on the walk

My wife and I have been working lately to help our kids find the joy in trying new things.  Some of this has meant taking appropriate risks(water slides and roller coasters).  Some times it has meant trusting their parents when we tell them they can do something.  [Do you trust your daddy?  “Yes” Then go jump off the diving board and swim across the pool to me.]

But some of it has been just helping learn to embrace things that are new.  Like many of us, their default reaction to a new food or a new experience is often, “I don’t like that.”  In those cases we often get to reply, “How do you know, you haven’t tried it.”  To help us with this very important teaching task, we have a slogan for this summer, “Live the adventure.”

Recently on our vacation the boys and I were wandering in the woods.  Evan began asking, “Daddy do you know how to get there?”  Not Exactly.

“Do you have a map?”  Nope.

“Will we be okay?” Yes.

“How do you know?”

I stopped and finally turned to him and said, “Evan what’s our motto?”

He replied “Live the adventure.”  We yelled it together a few times to build up our courage and then we forged ahead.

This slogan has been helpful for our boys and it has been challenging for me.

I too need to live the adventure.

Prodigal Jon (Author of Stuff Christians Like) has this challenging quote in a recent post on his new blog.

“You can gain experience, if you are careful to avoid empty redundancy. Do not fall into the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience – twenty times.”

I don’t want a life like that.

I want to Live the Adventure

on the walk

-Ethan