Always By Your Side

Always by Your Side

Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach. Mark 3:14, NKJV

Derek Redmond believed he could win a silver medal for Great Britain in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. After years of training and multiple operations on his Achilles tendons, he had already won two heats and was running in the semifinals of the 400 meters. But coming out of a turn, he heard a snap, felt a sharp pain in his leg, and dropped in a heap on the track. His hamstring had literally exploded. So had his dreams of a medal.

But Derek was determined to finish. He waved off the race officials running toward him with a stretcher. He slowly limped, even hopped, toward the tape. And he pressed through the pain trying to accomplish at least the goal of crossing the line.

On his way to the finish line, Derek felt a hand on his shoulder. He started to brush it off—no race official was going to stop him. But when he turned, he was looking not into the face of an official but into the face of his father. Jim Redmond had pushed his way through the crowd and onto the track to tell Derek that he didn’t have to finish. When his son insisted, Jim decided they would do it together. They walked the rest of the course, Derek crying on Jim’s shoulder all the way to the finish line. But he did finish.

That scene is one of the most memorable from that Olympics—or really from sports in general. Not only was it a poignant picture of the heartbreak of competition, it was also a poignant picture of a father-son relationship. Our children need to know we’re with them—that we’ll help them pick up the pieces of their dreams, that we’ll walk with them through any painful journey, that we’ll help them reach their goals however we can. They need to know they are loved and are not alone.

The only way to show them is to spend time with them—both quality time and quantities of time—and to be there when they need us. They need to know we would choose to spend our time with them over other interests. Even when we don’t have all the right words to say, we can make ourselves available. We can be present. And presence is often all they need.

Uncommon Key > A child’s ability to deal with hardship often depends on how the child’s parents teach their son or daughter to deal with it. And the best way to teach a child is to walk with him or her through life.