Monday morning Nick & I sent our oldest off to her first ever, overnight church camp. (We're ok, I promise--but she comes home tomorrow and we cannot WAIT!) Four days & three nights of swimming, team competitions, late nights, new friendships, and the dreaded by her...Mud Day. In the days leading up to her departure, we've had LOTS of conversations with our rule-following, risk-averse, status-quo loving 10 year old about being open & brave to try new things. She was SO excited for camp, but as would be expected there was just as much nervous energy while she got all packed up.
The main gist of our conversations? You have a choice to make. To participate with an open mind, or to sit back and watch as the fun (& dirt) unfolds without her. Will she like EVERY part of camp? Maybe, we sure hope so. But more than anything we don't want her to miss out on something extra fun just because she might be a little nervous of the unknown or scared of getting dirty. She has the opportunity to be a new, braver version of herself and that's certainly the choice we hope she makes.
And isn't that the same for us as adults? Don't we often sit on the sidelines because we're afraid to get a little dirty? Or we're unsure of whether it'll be worth it in the end? You've probably got something in the back of your mind that you need to JUST BE BRAVE about. Will it be something you absolutely love? Who knows, but how will you know if you don't try? Let's all be a little more brave and try those things that seem a little scary, because really, what's the worst that could happen if we end up with a little bit of mud on our face?
