Hope & Trying Again

Crying's okay, but you WILL try again.

May 30, 2024

Hope Matters

Let me preface this week’s hopeletter by stating that Significant Other (SO) and I can sometimes be hard-core Gen X-ers.

Around mid-January he sent me an Instagram reel of this little boy riding his bike. Now, this kid was not just riding his bike down the street. There were obstacle courses built from 2x4s, random cones, play sets, etc. He was jumping off things on his bike, and there was even a shot of him jumping off a roof into his dad’s arms. To me, my motherly instincts wouldn’t let me enjoy the beauty of the video during the first watch; I had to watch it several times before I could pull myself together. 😆

For context for the remainder of this hopeletter, you get another inside view into my life. Here’s a bit of the text exchange between SO and me in response to the video.

[Video]
Me: I know his mama stays on ready to accompany them to the ER or patch him up. Bless it! 😆
SO: I was joking about the post above. Being there to supervise is one thing… building sets is a whole different level 😆
Me: No. It’s legit though.
SO: Whatcha tell’em, ya bet not cry 😆 [This is something he thinks I might have said to my son and former students.]
Me: Nope. Crying’s okay, but you WILL try again. 😁
SO: No crying and walk it off 😆
Me: Sir! 😆 [Should I tell them to] Rub some dirt on it too?

Now, if none of that made sense to you, you might need to find a Gen X-er to translate it for you. 😂

Hope Buddies, I can’t imagine how often this child has fallen, been scraped up, or cried. Here’s what I know for sure without knowing him personally. He tried again and again and again. He didn’t wake up one morning, get on his new bike, and just do all this.

There are several things at play here with this little boy. Let’s dive in, shall we?

The kid has an interest in bike riding, probably an extreme interest.
He has gumption.
He has someone in his corner who is willing to invest time in his interests.
He has a father who loves him.
He trusts his father implicitly.

As adults, we already have all of this going for us. Somewhere, along our journeys in life, we fail at the thing we’re most interested in and lose #2, disbelieve #4, and don’t do #5. Behind the scenes, God’s got #3 on lock. He’s just waiting on us to trust Him enough and know that He’s lined everything up just like it’s supposed to be. But, we can lose heart and be stubborn and refuse to try ever again, because we failed once or twice. We cry, kick, and scream (throw a full-on tantrum) when things don’t turn out the way we want. We kick our proverbial bikes and walk away.

I can’t imagine how sad God’s heart is when we do that. He loves us enough to take the time to align things for us that will bring us immense joy if we keep at it, and we kick our bikes and walk away. In some instances, He’s waiting for us to jump, standing there with His arms outstretched, and we won’t move. We don’t trust Him. *deep sigh*

Hope Buddies, this hopeletter is as much for me as it is you. I won’t even issue a reflection on this one, because I might cry at the number of things I’ve walked away from. However, I will issue a challenge.

Challenge

We have a Father who loves us and whom we can trust implicitly. All we have to do is either jump or get back on the bike and keep trying, even if we fail yet another time. I guarantee you, the more we fail, the better we’ll get at trying until we succeed. Everything’s already lined up for us. If we knock it down or over, He’s going to set it right back up.

Jump, Hope Buddies. Get back on the bike. You might get scraped up or bruised and need to heal. However, learn whatever lessons you need to learn from falling and keep going. There’s joy in leaping and doing the things we love, that He’s given us to do.

Hope in trying again. ☕️

Coffee Matters

I’m coffee-struggling, Coffee Buddies. *deep sigh* I’m digging deep for something to share. Now, it’s not that I’m not drinking coffee, because Jesus and a doctor would need to personally tell me not to do that. 😆

I have tried a couple of coffees since I last discussed one here. I’m not feeling discussing them in depth yet. However, I’ll tell you what they are and where they’re from if you’re interested. (I promise I’ll get back to this piece more wholeheartedly as soon as I can.)

Here are the coffees:

Colada Shop Havana Blend - Colada Shop in Washington, D.C.

Black Mesa Chocolate Piñon* - Black Mesa Coffee Co. in the Albuquerque Sunport, Concourse A, Gate A9, Main Terminal

*Note: This one requires a bit of a process to order. You’ll have to email the company. Also, if you want to see what the bag looks like, click the Menu & Offers button on the landing page.

Happy sipping, Coffee Buddies!

What have you given up on that you need to get back to?