Lessons Are Going Swimmingly

All my kids have started swimming lessons recently. The boys, who have both taken swimming lessons for several years, figure they're pretty smooth-moving in the water, even doubt the value of swimming lessons at this point, considering their expertise. For my daughter, on the other hand, this is her first experience with swimming lessons. She had been enrolled in swimming lessons last summer but spent those two weeks on the deck of the pool, nursing a broken arm acquired while brushing her teeth.

She has been enthused about her swimming lessons and loves her instructor, but has also been somewhat discomfited because, as she says, everyone else in her group already knows how to swim and she is the only one who doesn't – which actually appears to be true. I do my best to assure her that learning how to swim is the reason for swimming lessons and that each time she goes, she'll get braver and learn more.

I passed on a piece of advice to my daughter from my husband's aunt, who learned to swim at the age of 50. She said that the most important thing for learning to swim was learning to relax: to trust the instructor, and to trust the water to hold you up. My daughter, her arm slightly sore from clinging to the edge of the pool, seemed a little skeptical, but hopeful.

Her condition sounds familiar to me. For this past month, I have had periodic moments where I feel the pressure of my new situation creeping up and lying down on my chest, like a pool's worth of water pressing down on me. And the temptation to panic and thrash about rises; the temptation to give in to worry as a form of action falls within the grasp of my fingers.

But...

I decided at the beginning of this venture that I couldn't afford to give in to temptations like that or, like a drowning person, my fear and worry would not only be my own undoing, but also cause serious problems for those around me. There's that crazy, irrational thought that worrying about something makes me appear to be a better person because it proves “I care.” Which is about as helpful as a drowning person's clawing to climb up on the shoulders of their rescuer. It doesn't help. It not only doesn't help; it harms – thrashing about in the water and worrying both. The trick, oh, the complicated skill of relaxing and trusting your rescuer when you feel overwhelmed.

I guess that's why lessons are so important – they do help you move - and live - more smoothly...and they could save your life. So here's to my lesson in letting go of worry and trusting in my Instructor.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?

But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow....

Matthew 6:27, 33-34