The Muscles that Help Shape Us by Tana Wilson

My five-year-old son was listening to my conversation about an adult who tried to cheat a kid out of his money.  He said, “I’d just walk away.”  Then he said, “No, first I’d punch him, and then I’d walk away.”  All I could do was smile at the picture of him punching an adult.  A child needs more than his own muscle to back up his words; ironically he needs the muscle of an adult.

As a fifth grader I fell on hard times.  I didn’t have the same matching shirt my friends had from Yellow Front.  (Does anyone remember that store in town?)  I was extra shy and super quiet in class.  Sometimes we don’t know we exist unless the people around us say we do.  I knew I mattered, but I needed an adult to back up my words.  Mr. Dan Heap, my fifth grade teacher, singled me out, walked over to my desk after a hard recess and had a heart-felt conversation with me that changed me.

            As a high school athlete I loved playing basketball.  Howard Jackson, Sr. was our high school janitor.  As he mopped the gym floors at halftime, he would talk to me about the game.  I needed his muscles to encourage me to play basketball at the college level.  He sent videotape and secured for me a tryout, and ultimately a position, with the Lady Mustangs in Silver City, New Mexico.

As a senior in high school I decided to learn how to swim.  I took a lifeguarding class at the Round Valley pool and was hired by Bonnie Cain to lifeguard at St. Johns.  Learning something new always brings challenges.  I needed the muscles of Sue Hall, who taught that lifeguarding class, and Bonnie Cain, who was my boss, to let me experience those problems, so I could progress as a swimmer.  Years later, when I rescued my own daughter from a near-drowning accident, I was grateful for these two mentors. 

To me, living in St. Johns has always meant there are adults on my side, to back up my words.  May we be the kind of adult who coaches, teaches problem- solving skills, and sets limits for the kids around us, just as Jesus does for each of us… then He will call us His because we are like Him.