Let the Paint Fly

I spent the morning playing paintball with some 10 year olds and the "chickens" and now I'm feeling it. It was fun and tiring and I've got a couple of good welps to remind me of the fun we had. It was my son's idea for a birthday party and except for getting shot in the head once, I'm pretty sure he had a great time.

It's fun being with kids. They run and play and worry very little, if at all, about what the world holds for them. Their innocence can be contagious. They see the world simply as a place to go and do what they want to do. They haven't developed the thought process of looking for all the things that can hold them back - they simply see what they want to do and set about to do it. Of course, we older, wiser, more mature adults are always handy to warn them off and pull them back so that one day they can be like us and get caught up in the problems of everything we want or need to do and forget to see the joy in doing it.

Our Wednesday night classes have reminded me that we need to be people who are bold and courageous; that setbacks are only obstacles to help us see a better path and failure is simply a tool to help us see we are going the wrong way. A stop sign doesn't mean we can't keep going. It only means we must stop, look and observe and make sure our path is clear. Too often in life, we come to a stop and we stop never going further.

I pray that I have the faith to go and do God's will and that I realize the hurdles and the stop signs are only there to challenge me to focus, to see what I need to see and to move forward still trusting in God's hand to guide me.