A few weeks ago, some friends of ours put on a 5k run through their neighborhood. It wasn’t any kind of official race, but more of a family friendly run and hang out afterwards.
Before my family was invited to this run, I was slowly getting more into exercising. I usually only ran about a mile and a half, but in anticipation, I worked my way up to the 5k distance.
A few days leading up to the event, my wife told me that she wanted to try running half of it while I ran with the kids in the stroller. There goes my goal of getting a fast time. But, to be honest, I was more happy for the company and getting to do a fun event as a family. During the run, there was lots of stopping and walking, since my wife doesn’t run consistently, but we had a blast. The kids even got involved, occasionally taking them out of the stroller and letting them run as well.
Time to crush my old 5k time
After finishing the first half with my family, I helped get the kids settled, plugged in my headphones and started my running timer on my phone. I knew I wasn’t going to have a great race time since I already ran a bit with my family. Nonetheless, I was determined to step it up and still get a time that I thought was reasonable.
About a quarter through the race, I noticed one of our friend’s daughters was standing on the side of the path and not running. As I got closer, I could tell she had been crying and was clearly scared by something. Getting closer, I saw the problem. A few large dogs standing right at the end of someone’s driveway.
Really, just a few dogs?
At first, I thought this was silly, as I grew up always having a dog in the house. Looking back, dogs must be pretty darn scary to kids. Depending on your kid’s size and age, an appropriate comparison could be you standing next to a rhino.
For her, it was one of those paralyzed by fear situations, where she felt like she couldn’t move because she needed to always have her eyes on the dogs. I’m not proud of it, but for a brief moment my mind went to “She’ll be fine, and will figure it out”, knowing that taking the time to comfort her would impact my race time.
I quickly crushed that thought as I approached her and asked what was wrong. As I guessed, it was the dogs near the street and she then proceeded to tell me about how a family member had been bitten earlier that year.
Being able to put myself between the dogs and her (breaking her vision of them), I put my hand on her back and gently nudged her forward as we walked past them together.
Teaching time
One thing I’ve learned with my children is that when they are in a state of fear like that, you aren’t able to logically work through the situation until they are calm. Hence, why you need to remove them from the situation first.
Once we were far enough away, she started running again and we were able to run together. While running, we talked a little bit about her fears and some of the possible outcomes if a dog was to approach her while running. After that, we ran together and had a little race ourselves as we approached the finish line.
After she finished, I was able to run another lap to complete a full 5k (without counting the half run/ half walk with my family). My time wasn’t great and didn’t hit my goal, but I was able to have a fun time with family and friends. More importantly, I was able to have a teaching opportunity to a child who wasn’t my own.
I don’t tell you this as a “yay me” story, as I think almost anybody would’ve stopped to comfort an afraid child, but just to make sure that you are keeping your eyes open for opportunities to serve and teach.
Reflection Questions
- Are you putting some of your own goals/desires above opportunities to teach and train up your children?
- Do you feel comfortable being able to teach and talk to children who aren’t your own? If not, why not?
- Are you engaging the children of your friends, so that you are able to have a relationship of trust with them?
