Coasting...

I remember when I was young and learned how to ride a bike. I would ride my bike everywhere! I even remember riding my brother Craig's bike--it was aqua blue with a sparkling, silver banana seat, and a 3-speed stick shift placed on the middle bar. Craig rarely rode his bike, so often I was able to ride to my heart's content! As I became a more competent bicycler, I became a little more daring...coasting without my feet on the pedals, riding with 'no hands'. This, of course, was before the big 'push' for helmet-wearing--in fact, I'm not sure I ever saw bike helmets until I became a mother. Perhaps, it was selective vision... When I went away to college, I remember calling my parents and asking them if they would help me purchase a bike. Being a parent of college-age children now, I can imagine them covering the phone and gleefully saying to each other, "All she wants is money to buy a bicycle!" And so, I bought a bike, and, for the next 3+ years booked around campus, to work, to institute, and even for rides in the mountains on my shiny red bike with a plain black bike seat (having graduated from the sparkling, silver banana seat). Of course, old habits die hard, and I continued occasionally coasting without my feet on the pedals, or riding with 'no hands'. What a sense of freedom and exhilaration!

Well, fast-forward ahead 20+ years or so, and I still enjoy going for a bike ride on occasion. Of course, it may be challenging for me to find a bike in our garage with tires that aren't flat, but I won't go 'there'. I still find myself 'coasting'--putting myself in a little bit of a precarious position. Of course, this has nothing to do with bicycles...this has more to do with the desire to just 'enjoy the ride'. Funny thing--life--it has a way of presenting hills, sometimes MOUNTAINS! Coasting isn't always an option, is it? Sometimes I wish it was...but, alas, the 'real' Vickie not only likes to coast, but likes a challenge as well. The trick is putting forth the effort worthy of the challenge, when I feel like coasting.

Isn't it wonderful that we have a source we can go to for strength in our 'mountain' situations. A wise man once said, "In the master's service, you will come to know and love Him. You will, if you persevere in prayer and faithful service, begin to sense that the Holy Ghost has become a companion. Many of us have for a period given such service and felt that companionship. If you think back on that time, you will remember that there were changes in you. The temptation to do evil seemed to lessen. The desire to do good increased. Those who knew you best and loved you may have said, 'You have become more kind, more patient. You don't seem to be the same person.' You weren't the same person because the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. And the promise is real that we can become changed, new, and better. And we can become stronger for the tests of life. We then go in the strength of the Lord, a strength developed in His service. He goes with us. And in time we become His tested and strengthened disciples." (Henry B. Eyring)

So, when I find my 'ride' becoming steeper, I know that I can choose not to ride alone. My strength is found in that choice. I can choose to pedal hard, coast and perhaps stop the progression of my 'ride', or I can seek the aid of the 'Master' biker...The choice is mine.