This entire summer I have been working hard on the low bar.
I would chalk up, then climb up and sit on the bar. I would then put my hands
in a circular motion, hoping to gain muscle memory. I would then grip the bar,
lift my legs and with my body tired and my legs shaking because I am trying to
keep them so straight and so tight. I would lean backwards, shoot my feet back
up towards the ceiling, let go and WHACK! On the ground... every time. Rachel
would say 1.) You’re straddling too early 2.) You’re shooting your feet
backwards not up 3.) It’s a release move, so you have to RELEASE your grip from
the bar...The point was to catch the bar not land on a mat with your legs in a
straddle.... Therefore, I would get up and do it again.
Well today was the first day of training camp. I had not
been in the gym for over two weeks until today, on my way to the gym I wondered
to myself. “Becca why are you going? Your straddle cut… you’re just not going
to get it. Your layout full… you can’t get it all the way around. You are
scared of the beam… what is an extra 26 hours in the gym going to do for you? But
I went anyways.
Five hours in and I was ready to go home and sleep... but we
finally had an open gym and I climbed
back up on the bar again as I always did, with the same mental and physical
routine going on in my head. I put my hands in the circular motion and did some
timers. Something was off… and I was thinking about not doing the skill at all
today… but I’m glad I did.
I was worried they would be horrible today because I hadn’t
done them in so long, but to kill a habit you have to starve it, and that’s
what the two weeks did. It killed every bad habit, and let the coaching I had
for the past two months take over. I fell backwards and shot my feet up into
the air. My feet collided with the bar (not supposed to happen… but it was the
first one.) and my hands found the bar and grabbed it…
I hung under the bar with my mouth wide open. “Did you catch
it!?” I hear coach Mykle ask me as I’m hanging there… suddenly it sank in. I
finally caught the bar… I caught the bar! Becca Garber, you just caught the
bar! It didn’t seem possible, it didn’t seem like reality because it something
I really didn’t think I was going to get.
So I got back up and I did it again… This time the bar was
in reach and I tapped it. My hands didn’t grab it. The second time my hands
tapped it again, but there was no hope in grabbing the bar. The third time, I missed.
I was starting to get discouraged. I could see my legs straddling before my
hands could release. I could feel it. Maybe it was just a fluke, a one-time
thing…
But I got back up and still did the skill. The second time
my feet didn’t even hit and my hands grabbed the bar as if they had over the
past two months. I let out a “yes!” and everyone looks at me and laughs. However,
they weren’t laughing to make fun of me, but to congratulate me on getting the
skill. Then I caught it a third, a fourth, and a fifth time. They still aren’t consistent…
but the fact is that I’m catching them!
There are two things I learned from today…
1.)
When you are chasing after God… often times we
struggle, we want it so bad, but only chase it so much. It would be as if I had
just given up on it today, when my body was tired, when something felt “off.” However,
you can’t give up.
Often times we are chasing after
that moment when we can finally let out a “yes!” But once we let out the “yes!”
we take off of our grips and go to a different event without finishing what we
started. In other words, we finally get a grasp on a great relationship with
God, but then trade him in for worldly things. It’s not fair to you or to God.
So stay on the event and let out more cheers until it gets to a point where
saying yes! Isn’t even needed and you are seeking a higher skill. (An even
BETTER relationship with God!)
2.)
Secondly… to kill a bad habit, you have to starve it! I
read that in a book for teenage girls and preparing us for the world… anyways.
It relates with gymnastics because of the way I said. I waited two weeks and
all that was left was my muscle memory and the coach’s direction over the past
two months. The bad thing about a habit is that it is most likely hindering you
from obtaining the skill you want.
Relates well with sin, to get
rid of it, you have to starve it! Don’t give into it, because just like the bad
habits I had when acquiring my skill… it will tear apart your relationship with
God, it will keep you from getting to say “yes!” every day!
-So kill your habits (sin) by
starving them because they will stop you from getting what you want (or where
you want to be in your relationship with God).
-Once you say “yes!” don’t give
up… get the skill (relationship) down and then move onto something greater
(maybe a better understanding of God’s will… or wherever you are at in your
walk with God.
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