The Courage to Try Something New

I was watching my grandson the other day at the playground.

There was nothing unusual about it. Same slide he’s been on before. Same steps. Same everything.

But this time, he stopped halfway up. Just stood there for a second, looking back.

Not upset. Not scared exactly. Just… thinking about it.

You could tell he was working it out in his head.

That moment doesn’t look like much from the outside.

But it is.

It’s that space between wanting to do something and not being completely sure you can.

He didn’t rush it. He held on, looked back one more time, and then kept going.

No big celebration at the top. No big reaction. He just did it. I think that’s what courage looks like at that age.

It’s not loud. It’s not dramatic. Most of the time, you could miss it if you weren’t paying attention.

It made me think about Fiona The Lost Sheep.

When Fiona was rescued, she didn’t suddenly understand everything around her. New place, new people, new routine. All of it unfamiliar. The hard part was over, right?

In reality, she still had to adjust to a world she didn’t recognize anymore because she’d been away from it so long

That takes its own kind of courage.

Kids deal with that same feeling all the time. Whether it’s trying a new word (trust me on this—my grandson is trying A LOT of new words), or climbing something a little higher or even walking into a room without you right next to them. None of it feels small to them.

And if you’re like me, the instinct is to jump in, give a hand. Maybe even pick them up to move things along. And sometimes that’s the right call.

But sometimes it’s better to just stay close and let them figure it out. Because when they do, something sticks.

They start to believe they can handle things. Not all at once, but enough to try again the next time.

My wife and I have been encouraging our son and daughter in law in this area. It’s easy to overlook those moments because they don’t come with a lot of noise, but they matter more than we probably realize at the time.

I don’t really have a tie in to my book here, other than to say if you haven’t read it yet, you can read Fiona The Lost Sheep for free here.

And if you’ve read it and want a hard copy of your own, you can find it on Amazon.

As always, thanks for reading.