We Are Their Training Wheels
Being a House Parent at a children’s home certainly has its challenges and rewards. One of our 14-year-old girls has never learned to ride a bike because she didn’t have a parent to teach her. It really is a right of passage to expand horizons to make their world a bigger place. This is one of a child’s first steps to overcoming fear.
It’s ironic, however, that some of our girls who have never learned to ride a bike, have had to overcome fears much darker and less innocent than other little girls who peddle their way into adolescence. Tragically it’s an accurate analogy for so many of our girls who have been left behind. All they want to do is catch up so they can ride with the pack.
As you can imagine, teaching a 16-year-old compared to a six-year-old is interesting as I go from one size to another trying to find the proper bicycle. The problem is, adult bicycles don’t have training wheels. Being personally childless, I guess that’s what I’m learning; we are their training wheels.
To provide the sturdiness, stability, and reassurance it’s going to be OK. If you waiver, kiddo, I’ll be there to hold you up. If you fall, I’ll be there to pick you up. And if you get discouraged, I’ll be there to cheer you up.
Hopefully with God’s help, somewhere between a parentless teenager learning to ride a bike 10 years later and me, as a late blooming childless parent; we can one day both graduate from our training wheels.
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.” (Psalm 68: 5-6)