This week one of the girls from the Children’s Home faced two of her fears and conquered them! Maricel is around 12 years old (between 12 and 14), according to her dental records. She is a shy, cautious child with obvious trust issues and emotional walls that she has built in order to protect herself. Maricel says few words including, “Yeah!” and “No!” However she can understand what we are saying to her.
No one is sure what exactly Maricel has been through in her life. As of now, there’s no way to know. One day she may be able to tell people what her life was like before she came to the Children’s Home or maybe they will never find out.
Last week while we were swimming in the kiddie pool, Maricel wouldn’t leave the safety of the steps. Although she was tall enough to stand in the deep end of the pool, she wouldn’t even try. This week however, Maricel not only left the comfort and safety of the steps but went into the water waist deep! I couldn’t believe it! I was so proud of her. For days I told her how proud of her I was! For a 12 year old to have such a fear of water and then to venture waist deep into her fear without anyone next to you just amazed me.
A few days later, she surprised me again. As the older kids went swimming, the younger kids including Maricel stayed back at the house. Before leaving the kids took a turn on the new rope swing. Maricel stood at a distance and watched, not venturing too close to the swing. After the big kids left I asked Maricel if she wanted to swing. Her answer was “No!” I assured her that if she changed her mind and decided that she wanted to swing, that I would help her onto the swing and not let her fall.
Five minutes later I heard Maricel yell, “Yeah!” I turned to her and saw her standing next to the swing, looking at it. I asked her if she was ready to swing and she said “Yeah!” As I helped her climb onto the rope swing, I explained how I would not let go of her and if she wanted to get off then all she had to do was tell me. After ten minutes, both of my hands were off of the swing and Maricel was on her own.
After Maricel had conquered her fear of the rope swing, she ran to the normal playground swings wanting to compete with Camille, an adventurous girl that is known to like to swing high enough to reach the leaves on the trees. So I began pushing Camille and Maricel, each going too high for my comfort! Maricel held her own against Camille, although she didn’t go as high as Camille. But she did go higher then I have ever seen her go before. And the entire time, she was laughing! There were no fears anymore!
As I watched Maricel swinging and laughing, I thought of how proud of her I was and that’s only after knowing her for a couple of weeks. Imagine what God must feel like when we step out of our comfort zones and face our fears.
When our fears about the future surface, I wander if God says, “Go ahead, you won’t fall and if you do, I’ll catch you.”? How many times have we turned away from something because it was scary when even if we had fallen God would have caught us?
