Keep moving forward

When I was a boy, I loved riding my red bicycle.  Then one day my father suggested we take the training wheels off my bike.  I was really confused.  How could my dad want me to fall flat on my face?

Despite my staunch resistance, my dad more staunchly and patiently persisted in moving me forward.  He offered to hold the bike while I rode.  My little kid brain couldn’t understand how that solved anything.  I could pedal faster than he could run, so how would he keep up to balance the bike?  Surely facial scars were in my near future.

But my dad simply waited and did the deed while I watched Saturday morning cartoons.  When I realized he was outside with my bike, I rushed to find him fastening the last nut after removing the training wheels.  My dad tried to curtail my obvious angst by suggesting I now give riding my bike a try with his help.

Reluctantly I mounted the bike.  Because deep down I trusted that my dad really didn’t want to hurt me, I began riding down the street.  I soon realized my dad wasn’t holding the bike, and I wasn’t falling on my face!

I couldn’t understand it, but it was incredible.  I was happier riding that bike than I had ever been, and since then I’ve never even so much as thought of using training wheels again.

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Keep pedaling

This experience applies directly to LDS singles trying to navigate life.

Although my kid brain couldn’t understand it, I later learned that forward motion balances a bike without training wheels.  Moving the bike forward supplies the forces needed to keep the bike in balance.  To prevent myself from falling on my face, I just need to keep pedaling.

Very often we LDS singles feel we’ve fallen flat on our face.  We see others getting married and wonder where our blessings are.  Or we experience a very painful loss of a marriage we thought would last forever.  We wonder how our lives won’t end up with us falling flat on our face forever.

The way to prevent that is the same in life as it is on the bike without training wheels.  We need to keep moving forward.  It’s the forward motion that keeps the bike and our lives in balance.

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Leverage success

Bad situations are part of mortality.  Dwelling on the negativity of your bad situation will perpetuate imbalance.  Your focus always becomes your reality.  So look ahead to better times and move forward towards them.

That may be challenging if you feel like you’ve never been successful.  I used to think I’d never succeed at dating because I didn’t look like a movie star and wasn’t otherwise “good enough.”  But that focus on my failures brought me a life filled with failure because your focus always becomes your reality.

How do you improve your focus?  Everyone has experienced success somewhere.  Use that success to leverage success at small wins in new areas.  Those small wins can help propel you to greater success with bigger wins.

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Don't go it alone

Sometimes you simply won’t have the strength to go it alone.  That’s OK because you’re not supposed to do life alone.  Reach out to the Lord and partner with Him.  Just as my dad initially held my bike so I could take the leap of faith I needed to ride without training wheels, so the Lord will hold you so you can take your leap of faith.  That’s what partners do, and the Lord loves you more than any other partner you could ever have.

You’re not here in this world by chance.  You’re here as part of a noble plan designed to promote your growth into something so amazingly incredible you can’t really imagine it.  And guess Who designed that plan?  A Heavenly Father who loves you so immensely that anything less than your growth into an exalted, celestial being would never be His ultimate objective.

You’re not here to fail.  You’re here to succeed, and that gloriously!  The way to succeed is to keep moving forward.  The obstacles in your path may seem huge, but the power of the Lord’s Atonement is greater than any power any other opposition may offer.  Partner with Him and keep moving forward.

Just as I learned to balance my bike without training wheels by continuing to move forward, so LDS singles can balance their lives without a spouse by continuing to move forward.  Partnering with the Lord can help you to know what you need to do to move forward and provide the strength you need to do it.

So what are you waiting for?  Partner with the Lord today, and enjoy the serenity of a life in balance.

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