My family and I like to go to Lake Hartwell sometimes during the summer with some friends of ours who happen to have a lake house and a pontoon boat sitting on a dock. We always have a great time, swimming, boating, tubing, jumping off the docks, and just being crazy. I feel like a kid again, when I’m in these types of environments; especially where there is water!

So it was the summer of 2011, where it almost felt like a celebration for getting our A/C fixed one Sunday. The house felt nice and cool once again, and we were loving it! Our friends Matt and Cheryl came by and asked us to come up to the lake with them. So we grabbed our stuff and took off for a couple days.

Once there, we jumped on the boat and we would take turns tubing. In case you’re wondering Tubing is kind of like skiing except with a giant inflatable tube and you can typically fit one or two adults on it. One time we had three of our kids on the tube; Alena who was 3 at the time, Nicholas who was 7, and Addison our friend’s daughter who was 4.

So you’ll get the picture, this tube is a big, solid bottom inflatable tube with many handles, and a long rope tied to back of the boat.  All of them were wearing life jackets and was having the time of their lives on that tube, holding on for dear life!

Sometimes on the turns, we would get flung off. Nicholas took the first wipe out. That scared him, and I don’t think he wanted to do it anymore after that. As we were turning around to retrieve him, I saw him from the boat waving his hands in the air screaming, floating out there helpless. He had thought we didn’t see him fall, so that really scared him! We pulled up and there he was floating, and everybody on the boat was clapping and cheering him on. His face was red, but quickly turned into a smile of excitement and laughter!

Now, here is something that will really tug at your heart strings. The second time Alena took the plunge! Oh boy, now this kind of freaks you out seeing your 3 year old daughter floating in the middle of a lake, but I knew she was okay. We swung back around clockwise to go pick her up, and as we glanced over at three o’clock, Nicholas, who was already scared out of his mind; was already half way there swimming to go save his little sister! You talk about a tear jerker. This tears me up every time I tell the story. That boy didn’t care how scared he was last time, his little sister was in trouble, and at that point to him nothing else mattered.

 

So here we are with the same scenario… We pulled up, you can tell she had been crying, but it quickly turned into a half cry/ half laugh as we were all clapping and cheering her on. Nicholas was the Hero of the day, and these are some of those priceless moments that we’ll never forget.

Now first, we all need to count our blessings. Stop worrying about the things you don’t have yet. But be thankful for what you do have, and the many blessings that are already coming your way. Many are focused on what’s missing, so since its missing they have nothing to inspire them, to motivate them, to give them that surge they need to win; to really win in life!

The only thing that’s missing is their desire to go after something with all your heart like nothing else mattered. Here we are talking about a seven year little boy who risked his life, not thinking about the consequences of the water, his already adopted fear, or the distance of the swim, but only except that which moved him, which drove him to go out there and save his little sister.

It’s a motivation like no other! 

 

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