GROWING SEEDS: "Fall Forward"

FALL FORWARD

I remember when I was in the 5th grade, riding with my Mom one May as we drove down Central Expressway in Dallas heading towards downtown.....towards the church school my parents worked long hours for so us 3 kids could get a Christian education.  I had my big poofy dress on, my hair up in a tight bun and my new black shoes buckled tightly.  We were headed to my piano recital and I was bawling.  I wanted to throw up. 

Mom's reassuring words fell on hollow ears as I cried my scared-witless tears.  "Why did I have to play in a stupid recital?  What if I forgot the music I had spent months memorizing?  What if.....what if??"  And almost as if I had "willed" it to happen, that is exactly what happened.  As I sat on the black bench of that baby grand piano that night in front of a few hundred souls, knees shaking uncontrollably, halfway through the second page of "Moonlight Sonata", I forgot the next note.  I found myself starting over.....and over.....and over.  I could feel my heart pounding through my chest....hundreds of eyes staring at me and holding their breath almost "willing" me to find that next note.  And then I felt it......I felt the hand of my piano teacher, MaryZeline Winsett......resting on my shoulder.  She leaned down and whispered in my ear what the next note was.  And as quietly as she came up on the stage that night, she was gone.  And I finished Moonlight Sonata with a roaring applause.

MaryZeline Winsett taught me that terrifying night so many years ago that when a piece starts to fall apart - fall forward.  Don't worry about the music behind you - keep moving forward.....don't look back.  Don't keep repeating past stuff......move forward.

A very wise woman once said, "Fear is always the first step of faith. We are all going to botch it some days. We all sometimes get the notes wrong. But the song only goes wrong — when we keep thinking back to the wrong notes.”

As I reflect back on 2013 and all the many mistakes I've made over this past year......those words are going to be my wisdom words for 2014: 

LIFE ONLY GOES WRONG WHEN I KEEP THINKING BACK TO THE MISTAKES.

Past mistakes are experience.  Forward is always the way Home.

"But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward to what lies ahead....
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Phil. 3:13-14