The last shall be first

Just in the last couple of days Lucy has suddenly become a courageous bike rider! She originally learned how to ride a "balance bike" which is a 2 wheeled bike, with no pedals. Supposedly you learn to "balance" on that bike first, and then you can transition straight to a bicycle without training wheels, simply adding the pedaling component. That didn't work for her. She needed the training wheels for months. She wouldn't ride down the slightest incline, and basically had no enjoyment to even practice. So she didn't try for a long time. Finally a couple of weeks ago we convinced her to try again, removing the training wheels, which seemed to be throwing her off balance! She needed quite a lot of encouragement, but then all of a sudden, she was telling me to let go sooner, and just this weekend she figured out how to give herself a "push start" so she could pedal and steer. Today she was flying past me, going down hills, steering fairly straight, and SO proud of herself! Obviously I am very proud of her too!! I love that she can be a self motivator at times, and I'm learning (re-learning again and again) that I don't have to wring my hands so much, wondering what I should do to help her thru whatever issue she might be having. One day, it just snaps into place, and all is well! Isn't that true about all physical development? I want the grace and wisdom to realize this is also true about character and moral development!

Which brings me to my silly parent speak today. So we're at the park (where all amazing and ridiculous parenting takes place!). Lucy and Henry ended up on the same equipment as another little boy, a bit smaller than Henry. They all were competing for the one slide and my kids were not too gracious in sharing. I had already corrected Lucy and tried to help Henry not be so pushy, and take turns. At one point Lucy was climbing up the climbing wall, towards the twisty slide, and the little boy was climbing up the stairs. They were both coming to the peak at nearly the exact same time, and Lucy scrambled up, pushing ahead of the boy, just as they were both reaching the entrance to the slide. (Did I mention I'm a "helicopter mom?") "Lucy, no you don't! come down here please!!" She came down without going down the slide, and I told her she needed to sit down with me. (She had already had one sit down time out, and was really struggling with a grumpy attitude, so it's not like it was her first offense). I said something like "You don't push a 2 year old out of the way so that you can go first!! 'The last shall be first and the first shall be last'!" HAHAHA, even as I was saying that, I almost stepped outside of myself and laughed. What kind of verse to quote at the park to your kids!! But being the awesome Bible mom that I am (uh oh), I managed to not bust out laughing at the odd words that were coming out of my mouth! Lucy says "I wish it didn't have to be like that." Ha, I said, "well, don't blame me, that's what IT says!" We sat on the bench for a minute, and I re-grouped about how it's not nice to push someone smaller than you out of your way, and if it's a tie, you should take the opportunity to give it to the person who is smaller than you. She understands. She has a very difficult time with needing to win! In fact when we came home, she had a 10 minute meltdown because I came in from the garage before she made it up the stairs. Not only does she need to beat me up the stairs, she needs to do it before I even come in the door! Long after I had started dinner, she was screaming for me to go back out into the garage so she could "win"! I did not concede. Nor did I quote her any humbling Bible verses! She did get to eat dinner though. Which is a pretty good trade off, I'd say.