STRETCHING
TOO HIGH

Topics: Child Rearing; Children; Discouragement; Encouragement; Fathers; Growth; Parenting

References: Ephesians 6:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13; 10:24

My ten-year-old son was “helping” me paint the laundry room. I brushed; he rolled. When he disappeared to get a Coke, I rerolled where he’d painted.

I didn’t mind this. But I did mind his repeated efforts to reach higher than he should; standing on tiptoe, his arm straight up, wobbly, trying to control the roller heavy with paint. “Let Daddy get the high stuff,” I said. “I’m afraid you’ll drop the roller or lose your balance and fall in the paint.”

I had to leave the room briefly and returned to find Justin once again stretched—ambitiously but precariously—with a shaky roller in his fingertips. “Justin,” I barked, “I told you to stop stretching! I’ll get that.”

“OK, Daddy. I won’t do it again.”

In the silence that followed, I wondered how many times over the years I have given my children that message: “Stop stretching.” How often have I said, “You can’t do this; it’s too hard. Let me do it. Don’t be unrealistic. Don’t reach so high”? Too often, I’m afraid. Now that I think about it, I kind of hope they weren’t listening.

—Ken Langley, Zion, Illinois