Perseverance

Psalm 71:15-18 "I will tell everyone about your righteousness. All day long I will proclaim your saving power, though I am not skilled with words. I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign Lord. I will tell everyone that you alone are just. O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do. Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me." (NLT)

As I was growing up in the Los Angeles area as a very little girl, I was constantly surrounded by my cousins. There was a whole slew of us as our parents were from a large family of eleven siblings. So times that by two or more children. I was especially close to one cousin who lived nearby while my Mom was living with her mother after she had relocated us from New Hampshire back to Los Angeles, where she would file for divorce from my biological father. Needless to say, money was tight for my mother. My brother and I came with few toys. However, my cousins had what looked to my eyes as an abundance of toys, inclusive of bicycles.

I was always amazed at how skilled they were with riding their bikes. Sure there were the tricycles, but at the tender age of five, I felt I was too big for those and wanted to ride on a big bike like my cousins. One day for some reason all the cousins were not around, but in the middle of my Buelita's yard, one of my cousins big bike was sitting in the middle of the yard on its side in the dirt. I had never ridden a big bike, but it was intriguing to me. So I took my smaller in size self to the big bike and used every muscle in my body to stand it up. It seemed like four times as big as myself. I put my leg over the bar (it was a girl's bike) and stood it between my legs. I tried to copy how my cousin might have started to ride it and I fell more than a dozen times. It hurt so bad. I know after this endeavor, my body had scrapes and bruises. I finally was able to stabilize it enough to turn the pedals a couple rounds. And down I went many, many times. I cried a lot and was very frustrated, but determined to ride the bike. I called out to the universe for it to help me. Before I knew it, I was able to ride it in a straight line, but I wanted to ride it in a circle. My Buelita's yard was huge, so turning big circles would be an easy task if I were able to learn to ride it. I started my turns and fell many, many times. Finally, unbeknownst how, I was riding in circles and straight lines with the bike. I knew where the bike should go and who it belonged to. It was my cousin's down the street. So I rode it to her house and returned it to her. I was so happy that I could ride a bike. This story is about perseverance and doing things bigger than yourself. God instilled in me an attitude to never give up and to rely on God and myself. It seemed in my childhood that I was doing a lot of things by myself. From that day on, I was able to ride any bike that was offered for me to borrow. It wouldn't be until years later that I would own a bike of my own.

I was probably about ten years old when I was presented with a Schwinn Stingray Girl's Bicycle and it was purple and beautiful. My parents may have bought it new or with the help of my uncles, it might have been a renovation.(Our family was very poor.) I didn't care. It was brand new to me. I enjoyed that bike for about three years. I used to ride that bike across town with my friends. I loved it. One day I left my bike on the porch of my house while I took a bathroom break and when I came back, it had been stolen off the porch. It was one of the saddest days of my childhood life. I grew up in the 60's and 70's. After it was stolen, I never owned another bicycle until adulthood.

As an adult, I have reflected back on my experiences in my childhood and my determination to be a self-starter for many situations. Perseverance was a characteristic that was instilled in me by God. God made me strong as I would need to face many giants in my life. As a small autistic girl, I had to strive extra hard to make friends and not be bullied due to my odd behavior. Because of this perseverance, eventually, I learned how to be a very outgoing person. I often say, I was blessed by being a pretty little girl, which might have made it easier to ignore my "weirdness". I was determined to survive my challenges set before me.