A life lesson from swimming lessons.

My two year old daughter, Evelyn, has always seemed to be very fond of the water. My husband will use the shower sprayer in the bath and spray her face and she will laugh as water is filling up in her eyes and getting in her mouth  and nose. She just loves the water. We spent a lot of time this summer at the pool and she would just in and play and go under water and kick her feet and blow bubbles. I was so proud of her. I thought, "I should get her into some swim lessons and she will for sure love them and become a more excellent swimmer." So a couple of weeks ago, I signed her up for the lessons. When we got to the pool, she started telling me that she didn't want to go to the lessons. I just thought...hey, she's fine...she loves the water and there will be no problem. The instructor tells Evelyn to get in and that's when it started. Evelyn acted like she had never even seen water in her life let alone did she think she would be comfortable having it touch her body. She started crying and screaming. My blood pressure started to rise and I felt an anger rise up in me...maybe because I felt embarrassed or confused. She was better than this. I knew she could frolic in the water and do much more than I saw or didn't see her do in that swim lesson. I was DISAPPOINTED. Part of me had felt pride most of the summer because my little two year old daughter had such a knack for the water. I got upset with her and withheld grace from her. My disappointment and embarrassment got in the way of my love for her. Today, we had a swim lesson again. I have been preparing her all week for this lesson. I told her to try her hardest and have fun. She did cry a little in the beginning of the class, but by the end, she was laughing and playing. My life lesson here is that we have expectations for ourselves and children and when they don't reach those expectations, we can get angry or frustrated. In the end, we have to have a ready hand of grace to extend. Each day and sometimes each minute I have to consciously choose grace instead of anger or frustration. Choose grace.