My Daddy Taught Me to Ride a Bike...Nothing Can Ever Be Easy

When I was growing up my parents gave Lori and me bicycles. They were pink with baskets on the front, and I don’t remember training wheels of any sort. What I do remember was wanting to know how to ride it without having to learn how to ride it…make sense? I was the same way about skating, jumping on the pogo stick, swimming, playing piano…you get the picture. My daddy wanted to show us how easy it was to ride the bicycle, so this grown man straddled my pink bicycle and began pedaling. While he was a little wobbly at first, he straightened up, gained confidence, and said, “Hey, watch this!” That’s when he popped a wheelie. Under normal circumstances this would be really awesome, but if you’ve read any of my prior blogs, you know that my daddy never did anything normally. True to form, daddy popped a wheelie on my bike and fell backwards landing hard on his tailbone and then his back. Let’s just say he was slow in getting up and for about six weeks he sat on a donut because he had fractured his tailbone. We were laughing up until the time he tried to get up because it was a pretty funny sight. Then it was my turn to try. I got on the bike, got my balance and started pedaling. At that time, we lived in a single-wide trailer (12 ft by 60 ft), and the trailer had a tongue that jutted out from the front of the trailer. When I mentioned that daddy showed us how to ride our bikes, did I mention that he didn’t show us how to stop because he fell and broke his tailbone? Yep! I ran my bike into the tongue of the trailer because I didn’t know how to stop it! The tongue was very effective in stopping my bicycle.


When daddy was teaching Lori and me how to drive a car, he taught us in a Ford Festiva that was a standard, a stick-shift. He was teaching us how to shift gears and how to start going if we had to stop on a hill. I hated stopping on a hill and having to start up again. I would stall out or roll backwards several hundred feet. I dreaded it. If only I could know it without learning it! I remember one time I was sitting in the back of the car, Lori was driving, and daddy was in the front passenger seat. We ALL had our seatbelts on. As we approached a hill there was an intersection, and daddy told Lori to turn left. SOOOO, we crested the hill going about 35 mph and made the left turn without stopping at the stop sign all while going about 35 mph. We went into the ditch and back out again. I’m in the back seat frightened out of my mind and laughing hysterically, and daddy was in the front saying, “Dang it, Lori, why didn’t you stop?” Her response was, “You told me to turn!” Daddy hadn’t told her to stop and then turn left. She had taken him at his word – face value.

Have you ever anticipated something that you were ill-equipped to deal with? Have you ever wanted to know a thing without having to learn it?

That is where I found myself as I blog through Genesis. I knew it was coming, so I started reading a book on the subject. I know that there have been others who have taught on covenants, but to be honest, I like to learn it for myself. Yes, my son comes by it honestly. He and I typically learn things the hard way. Don’t get me wrong, if there is a difficult lesson to learn, I’d much rather learn it by watching others make the mistakes, but when it comes to the Word of God and how it applies to me, I figure I kinda need to do the work myself. Does that make any sense? So, I will attempt to give a step-by-step approach to this covenant, so hopefully we won’t go into the ditch –so to speak. This particular covenant is the precept for the cross, and I am so thankful for the cross.

So, I knew the chapter was coming up regarding the covenant God made with Abram, and I began reading a book I was given written by James L. Garlow called The Covenant: A Study of God’s Extraordinary Love for You. I confess sometimes I find biblical books to be very dry and boring especially if I can’t connect to it. Am I alone here? (To my friends who have published Bible studies, I’m not referring to yours.)

On the flip side of the coin, I also know that I can’t teach on a subject that I have no experience or knowledge concerning, so I dove into the book and the Word, and what I found was humbling. I ask that you bear with me over the next few blogs as I dig into the covenant, its importance, and how does it apply to me and you today, right now, right where I sit, where you sit…you know, where the water hits the wheel. Are you ready? Are you willing?

Please read Genesis 15.