How old were you when you learned how to ride a bicycle? I think I was 6 years old. Little Benjamin, our foster boys’ little brother, was 2 when he learned how to ride the tricycle.

First his older brothers pushed him, but soon he learned to pedal himself. When he was 4, we put him on a little bicycle with training wheels. It did not take long before he raced through the yard, around the trees and over rocks. When he was 5, we felt he was ready to ride without the training wheels.

The day we told him we would take off the wheels, he almost cried. He kept saying, “I can’t do this. I will fall over!”

We assured him he would be okay, but he didn’t want to hear about it. We gave him a few more days, but then Toussaint took out the screwdriver. Benjamin was scared when he saw that the training wheels were gone, but he loved riding the bike so much that he finally tried.

Did he fall? Of course! We all fell more than a few times when we learned how to ride a bike, didn’t we? But by the end of the day, he was quite happy and proud of his skills. It took only a few weeks until he was racing through the yard again.

Have you ever been scared when asked to do something that seemed too difficult and you felt you could not do it, like being a missionary for Jesus and telling your friends about him? Don’t let the fear stop you. Give it a try! Stretching yourself will make you grow, and soon you will proudly do what you thought was impossible.

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