Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Ryan and I have started this new thing in our marriage: intentional hang out. Let me preface this by stating that I am a pretty needy wife in that I need time with Ryan. A lot of it. I also like planned hanging out. I don't just want to be in the same room as him, but actually engaged in discussion or actively doing something together.

Ryan had a bright idea the other day to plan out a month of planned activities together. These range from grabbing coffee (or tea in my case) together to swimming, to board games to playing tennis, etc. Yesterday on our plan was to swim. In my mind this meant to lay out, jump in the pool for a couple minutes, play in the pool together, and then lay out some more.

Ryan had a different idea in mind. He wanted us to swim laps together. Laps!? I am not a swimmer. I tried laps last year and failed miserably.But- since I am working on being less selfish, I smiled, dug out my one piece and found my goggles hidden deep in my drawer.

We had to wait awhile to get a lane and I looked down and saw this:

It was dark when I put on my shoes, but how does this happen?

Ugh. Not only did my shoes not match, but I couldn't find my hair tie. I was done. This is not what I wanted to do. No. My selfishness wanted to creep out but I persevered. I made a conscious decision that I was going to enjoy our evening together albeit swim laps, and make the most of what we had planned out.

My competitiveness comes out too much when I'm right next to Ryan- the amazing swimmer- that I feel like I am failing. I kept repeating to myself "slow and steady wins the race." So lame but it got me to realize that I don't need to swim as fast as Ryan and that this was in fact not a race.

I learned something yesterday though, perseverance adds character. If I give up, I miss out on the opportunity to be sharpened. I miss out on the chance to grow. I want need to grow and mature and I have to use these opportunities to help me.

When we were finishing up, Ryan insisted that I do one more. "Just when you think you're done, do one more." Ughhhhhhhh. Fine. Perseverance. I did it and was glad I did.

Slow and steady wins the race.
To always persevering,
Tera