The Bicycle Trouble

Emma, newly turned 8, lives on her bike. Our house is on a hospital station that is 1/2 mile in length. The hospital and missionary kid school is in the middle, so 1/4 mile from our house. She loves to ride her bike everywhere.

Our little school consists of Allison and Emma and 5 Swiss children for this first semester. I would love for a school that my girls could go to with PNG children, but that is not an option as 4th graders in the PNG school can barely read English. But that is a whole different topic.

So, Emma loves riding her bike to school. I told her yesterday, "lock up your bike" later during laundry, I find the bike chain on the floor of the laundry room. So, I head up, lock up her bike and come back home.

Normally, I am a pretty trusting person and wouldn't think too much about forgetting to lock it up. Things routinely "go missing" from our house that are left outside: Shoes, toys, 200 foot garden hose, jump ropes, lawn chairs... But the biggest kicker is that another missionary child had her bike stolen from the front porch of the school last year. It was later found and brought back, but lots of heartache for all involved.

So, today, Emma is leaving the house, climbing on her bike, backpack on, I ask if she has her chain and lock. She looks through her backpack before remembering that she left it at school so she would not have to remember to take it. And off she goes to school.

Now, 30 minutes later, I am walking by the school on the way to the hospital and see her bike outside, looking like it is not locked up. Tell me moms, what would you do? I thought about it, walked over to the school and decided to hide the bike. As I was walking away, common sense struck me and I went back and told Em's teacher what I was doing.

At 10:15 recess, I left the hernia surgery and went down so I could be there and talk with Emma as she noticed it was gone. SHE NEVER NOTICED! My Emma is not the most observant child, always having amazing thoughts, but not always noticing what is going on. So I told the teacher to have Emma call me.

12:25. Phone call. "Gail, Emma wants to talk with you"
Sniff, sob, sob "Moooooooooom....I forgot (sob) to lock up (sob) my bike (crying loudly) and it is not here!!!" Now, for all of you Grandmas out there, who's hearts are breaking I will let you know that I didn't make her suffer too much longer. I told her I had the bike and it was safe and that she couldn't ride it for a week, to remind her to lock it up.

This afternoon, I am wondering how many times do I do that to God. He reminds me of something, I read something in the bible, I hear a song that touches my heart to change something inside of me, and then I go do the same wrong again and again. My prayer is that I (and Emma) will listen the first time and not make God (or Mama) ask again or teach a lesson. May you too listen to the whispers of God today.