A couple of blog posts ago I referred to one trip on the ice with my parents. I said I would finish that story later. Well, this is later.
I was very small at the time, just old enough to be getting around on my own. I was playing in the snow and having fun on the ice. I would fall at times and cry until they would come pick me up.
Well, one time I started crying and my dad told my mom to just let him cry. Let him get himself up from falling. What they didn’t know was that I had fallen through a hole in the ice some fisherman made. As I was going down through the hole, I stuck my arms out to the side. That is what saved me from completely going under the ice and drowning. But there I was, up to my arm pits in ice cold water, screaming my head off. Finally, my dad got tired of hearing me scream, came over, and to his surprise found me dangling by my arms from a hole in the ice.
That day had a profound effect on me tp this day. I developed a fear of water that would not disappear. I could be on a boat in the water but as soon as I went into the water, the fear of drowning would overtake me. I would panic, and you know what happens when you panic in the water. You head to the bottom very quickly.
Some fears are harder to overcome than others. I have taken swimming lessons but to no avail.
I can go in water now without sheer panic overtaking me, but I cannot swim freely. God reminds me there is yet hope!
““For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7
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