When I was between 5 and 8 I went to a lake with my sister and several cousins. I was the youngest by 4-6 years. I wanted to be with them everywhere they went. I was your typical annoying little sibling. On this day, I wanted to be out on the lake with them. I was on a one-man raft and they were on another one all together. I went out pretty far with them, and then they decide they had enough of me and pushed me off to float alone. They figured I would float back into the shore. They were wrong and I went out farther. When I finally realized I was going the wrong way, I decided to get off and walk back into the shore. Problem was I was out too deep and could not touch bottom. I was off the raft and could not get back on the raft. I panicked and started to sink. My sister saw what had happened and she jumped in to help me. By the time, she got to me, not only had I almost drowned but also started a lifelong fear of the water. Sure, I still swam but there were times when I would have panic attacks and I would not go into deep water without have great fear.
I took a day off last week to be with my family and some family who were here from out of town. We went to the beach. This was last week, which according to my calendar was leg day. I knew that whatever I was going to do I needed to do it there because I would not have anytime the rest of the day. I start out with a boogie board and I started to swim hard. I figured this would be a great leg workout. I got out pretty far when I realized that there was a buoy out in front of me. I start out towards it. I decided I was going to swim out to it and back. As I went out, I realized it was out there a lot farther then I realized. Once I got to it, I was so happy to touch it. I know the swim in would be harder because I was swim against the current, but did not realize that also I was swimming again my fears also. As I turned around it was so hard to get started back to the shore. The shoreline seemed so very far away. I kept looking back at the buoy and was so afraid that I would not make it back. One time I looked back and I show a boat stop. I realized they too were worried if I was going to make it back. When I show the boat, I was even more determined to make it back. I know that God had placed that boat there for me just as he did my sister. However, this time I found the courage to fight through the demon on my own and I did make it back to the shore. I was a great victory and a great workout.
