Jul 20 2008
live the adventure
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
Live the adventure. I am so with you on that. I see so many “playing it safe” and staying in their comfort zones- I find myself doing this all too often.
My husband likes to tell our kids about his ancient boyscout days. I am in absolute awe over the things his troop did. All I can think of when he tells his adventures is, “Nope. Couldn’t do that today. Nope couldn’t do that either.” Why? First of all, the lawyers would be lined up and secondly I think we have gone way too far on the side of safety for our kids.
Please don’t get me wrong. I believe in seatbelts and precautions, but it seems like we as a society want to shelter our kids from every potential hazard in life. We want to keep our children in soft padded cocoons. The problem with this is that when our children are so completely nested, they don’t learn to fly. There has to be balance.
It’s the same scenario for adults. Life IS an adventure, but so many of us get stuck in the safe and predictable. I know I have. What has held me back so many times is fear. When we live the adventure, we also live with uncertainty that can leave us a little shaky. God has taught me to step out and try new things anyway. He hasn’t told me that I will always be successful, but even in my failures, He will help me to learn and grow.
Okay, just one of Bryan’s boyscout stories. His troop had set up camp and was wondering what was for dinner. The leaders brought out cages of live chickens and let them go in the middle of the campsite. They said, “Boy’s here’s your dinner. Go get ‘em.” The boys had to catch, kill, pluck, dress (or whatever you do with chicken) and cook their own chicken for dinner. Now that’s living the adventure!
Wow! That is so cool. I am going to try that some time.
-Ethan
That’s something I haven’t seen before. Making your own chicken from “scratch”. lol. Unprepared. Not unprepared so you need salt and pepper. Unprepared like you need a shotgun. That’s something I’ve been struggling with. Recently things have come into my lift that’s given the invitation to switch gears around and get out of my comfort zone; and I am SCARED! I’m afraid I’ll just stay at this same old, go nowhere job for the rest of my lift.
I never went to college, I’ve worked for the past 4 years out of high school. I’m not at all an academic type of person. But as the saying goes you won’t go anywhere without a college degree. Although that’s not entirely true for all professions. Good jobs can have on the job training, or spend 6 months at a technical school, etc. So when my small group guys have been pushing and encouraging me to go back to school; I’ve become very scared. I want to do well and have a good job and make a living that would support a future family, etc. Right now the dream seems so far from my grasp.
I think I’ve just got to jump and live the adventure. It won’t be easy, but God will be there. Matt Silver says about our relationship with God; “you gotta do the work” (pray, read your Bible, meet regularly with other christians) if you want to grow. Same is true in life, nothing’s handed to you, you gotta do the work.
So thanks for encouraging me to live the adventure. Ethan, give me a buzz if you ever feel like getting lost in the woods, or um………. killing and eating a chicken.
Ryan