Luke - "Don't look backward, just look at what's in front of you"

Luke and I had a great day. A father and son day. A day to skip school and see a baseball game day. A day to sign your son out of school because he has to see "Doctor Padre." Luke thought I should have signed him out with "baseball fever." We headed downtown to see the Padres game. It was a great game with Trevor Hoffman pitching the last inning and getting the save for another Padres win. The game ended at about 3:00 so we had time to go to Mount Soledad, which Luke saw on the way downtown and said he had never been there. Mount Soledad was awesome as it always is. Great views of the ocean and Luke got to see the plaque honoring my dad.

We then went to De Anza Cove in Mission Bay for my second week of open water swimming. Luke was going with me so he could swim with another 8-year old boy, Bobby, who is training for the same kid's triathlon. We were in our wetsuits ready to swim out 25 yards into the bay and float near a buoy for further instructions. We all got in the water to head out. But I couldn't find Luke. He wasn't with Bobby and his mom either. I couldn't see him. I then look out about 15 yards in the bay and Luke is with the leaders swimming out to the Buoy. OK, he doesn't have the fear his father has so I followed him out there. We floated in the water for 10 minutes discussing what the workout was going to be and I discussed a smaller workout that Luke and I might do. The group was going to swim 75 yards at a time, stop and then discuss triathlon techniques. I told Luke we'd swim a little less. Well the group started out and Luke started out right in the front of all theses adults. Swimming pretty good for the first 15 yards. I couldn't see him too much but I knew he was right by my side. After this he stopped and looked at me with those nervous eyes and said, "Dad let's swim closer to shore." No problem, and we headed in and swam with Bobby and his mom for the rest of the hour. Great day and we ended it at McDonald's on our way home. We try to always review our day and find our favorite part, what we should be thankful for or what we could have done better. I thought it would have been better to have seats in the sun at the game because we got pretty cold. I thought we should have practiced swimming in the bay before other people got there like Luke had suggested. I then asked Luke how it could have been better. He wanted to catch a baseball at the game. I agreed, that would be cool. We then discussed why he got nervous and wanted to head back to shore. He said he looked back as he was swimming and realized how far he was from shore. He said he'd never do that again because it distracted him. He said "Dad, that's the key, don't look backward, just look at what's in front of you."

I think I learn as much from Luke as he learns from me. He is braver. He has growing wisdom and I pray that we can keep him from any harm until he becomes a full-grown Christian man on his own.