A couple weeks ago, my neighbor – who is an instructor and coach at The University – gave a talk about one of his former athletes. She was on the track team and worked very hard to be good at her sport. She came to every practice, gave her best effort and afterward, would always come up to the coach and say, “What more can I do? What can I do to be better?”
She did very well at her various meets and eventually ended up competing at a national level.
She knew her competition was tough, so before her specific race started, (once around the track, running hurdles) she walked up to the coaches and asked, “What can I do to win this race?”
They decided that her strategy would be to start off fast and hard at the BEGINNING of the race, run it hard all the way, and that hopefully that would give her enough of a lead to win. She knew it was going to be tough, so after they made their plan, she disappeared for a few minutes, presumably to gather her thoughts.
The race finally began. While the other runners in her competition started off gradually, planning for the sprint at the end, she took off like a bolt of lightening. Crossing the first hurdle, she was a step ahead of everyone. When she got to the second hurdle, she was a hurdle length ahead of everyone. By the third hurdle, she had a significant lead.
She was able to keep that lead for a while, but then she started getting tired. My neighbor said he could see she was losing her stride. Her legs began shaking, she was losing her rhythm. The other runners started catching up to her.
Finally, at the end of the race, it was a photo finish. Enough people had caught up to this young lady that it took a couple minutes to determine who the winner actually was. It was finally announced that this girl had won and not only was victory hers, but she had set a new national record!
Everyone was so happy!
When things had calmed down a bit, my neighbor took this girl aside and asked her, “Where did you go for those few minutes before your race started?”
She told him that she found a quiet spot underneath the bleachers where she could pray. She said she told Heavenly Father that she had done everything she could do to prepare for the race that day and that she couldn’t improve anymore. She asked Heavenly Father to take over and help her win the race.
She then told my neighbor that at the end of the race, she had nothing left in her. She had run out of energy and stamina and that there was no way her legs could have kept working. She said that she KNOWS that Heavenly Father carried her the final steps of the race and gave her the push over the finish line to win.
It was a nice story.
My son DRANK IT UP. He loved it!
Last week was his piano recital.
His FIRST piano recital to be precise.
He was ready. He practices 1/2 hour, 5 days a week (heavily encouraged by me.) :)
He had his pieces memorized the second week after he got them. By the 3rd or 4th week, he had them mostly polished. He was tired of them and bored by the 5th week.
Translated: HE WAS READY!
But, he was still nervous. It was his first time to play the piano in front of an audience. (“Did Michael Jackson get nervous, Mom?”)
A couple hours before the recital I said to Inigo, “Let’s eat some dinner, then we’ll say a prayer so you’ll feel more calm.”
His response was, “No, Mom. I think I’m just going to fast. Remember that story that Bro. W told in Sacrament Meeting? I need to fast so I can show Heavenly Father that I have enough faith so he can help me play my songs in my recital.”
(Then he asked if he just held his hands over the piano keys, would Heavenly Father just make them play?)
This kid amazes me.
He. Just. Has Faith. It’s second nature to him.
I don’t teach him.
He teaches me.
I don’t know why we were so blessed to have this child in our home, but I am very grateful that he is here.
Once we got to the room where the recital was, he seemed calm. He told me he felt okay, but told Steck that he was a bit nervous.
When it was finally his turn (that’s a long story: Max was flying to Florin so he could be here for the recital, but there was a pretty brisk headwind, so it took him a bit longer to arrive. He landed about 20 minutes after the recital started. Inigo’s wonderful teacher moved him around on the program, so that once Max finally arrived, Inigo got up to play his first song!)
ANYWAY,
When it was finally Inigo’s turn to play his first song, Star Wars Theme Song, he walked up to the piano, sat down and aced it!
He played it BEAUTIFULLY!!
We were so proud!
His second song was just as nice. (The teacher had gotten distracted by then, and we had to remind him that Inigo had one more song to play.)
Afterward we asked him how he felt.
He said he felt calm and that he wasn’t scared at all.
Did he feel like Heavenly Father helped him?
YOU BETCHA!
Did I learn another lesson from my 8 year old son?
YOU BETCHA!
Little Miss DooLittle takes from the same teacher.
She did an amazing job as well!
Here they are with their teacher
Brother Opie.
I’m so sad I couldn’t get this picture to turn out better.
(I think the white board behind them was messing my lighting up.)