Two Steps

When I bring the laundry basket to the laundry room I come down the stairs backwards.
I am always careful about lifting things, in order to protect my back.
I slide the laundry basket down the back stairs as I guide it, holding onto the banister.
It may sound dangerous or awkward but in reality it is easier than coming down forward.

I remember when my children were learning to come downstairs.
Going up the stairs had been mastered much too quickly.
Going down the stairs was another story.
They were too little and wobbly to walk downstairs by themselves.

They didn’t seem to want to sit on the stairs and plop themselves down to the bottom.
The method of choice was to turn themselves around at the top of the stairs and slide down.
They slid down on their belly, shimmying with their feet all the way to the bottom.
It was the turning around at the top that always frightened me a bit.

I saw our first daughter come down the stairs this way on her own.
It seemed very clever to me.
It was actually a safer way to come down.
Except for the turn around at the top.

When my other children were born, I actually helped them turn at the top of the stairs.
The older sibling would often come down alongside them as if to teach them how to do it.
After a while, I was not concerned since they mastered the skill expertly.
It was when they finally wanted to come downstairs standing up, there were new concerns.

I witnessed a version of this at church on Sunday.
I watched as two little boys needed to come down two steps of a platform.
The steps were not high.
The steps were not steep.

Only one little boy was old enough to come down the two steps standing up.
The other boy was not ready to do that yet.
I watched as the older boy tried to take the hand of the younger one.
I watched the older boy try to coax the little boy down alongside him.

In the process of trying to maneuver the two steps, the little one lost his shoe.
The older one, ever the protector, picked it up and held it carefully.
Now the little one with one shoe on and one shoe off could not get a good grip.
The foot with only a sock to protect it, kept slipping.

I watched the older boy try to figure this out.
He held the little boy’s hand and talked encouraging words that only they could understand.
The little one with the one shoe would have nothing of it.
He was already slipping; he was not going to fall, too.

I admired the older boy’s tenacity.
He stayed right with the little boy, never leaving his side.
There were no tears; there was no visible frustration.
This was a mountain to tackle in the minds of these little boys.

Much like an explorer, they would eventually master it.
The older boy seemed to want the little boy to come down standing up.
The little boy seemed to know he wasn’t ready.
Neither boy figured out that the little one had to come down the two steps backwards.

I stood there watching.
I didn’t want to intrude on their problem solving.
Their family was nearby, engaged in conversation.
The little boys were safe; they just had to figure out how to handle the task before them.

The older boy held the wayward shoe with one hand and the little boy’s hand with the other.
The older boy talked to the little boy as if to will him down the stairs the big boy way.
Finally, the little one must have realized that he could do this just like he does at home.
He turned himself around and went down the two steps backwards.

The older boy broke out in a riotous cheer.
Yay! Yay! He said proudly still holding the little boy’s shoe.
The little boy say down on the bottom step and clapped his hands.
This was quite an accomplishment.

I realized that it was a shared accomplishment.
There was the one who actually did it and the one who encouraged him to do it.
I witnessed a life lesson that is too often forgotten.
There are the doers and the encouragers and each has an important role.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
(1 Thessalonians 5:11)

I learned a life lesson from watching the two boys.
I learned how to encourage so that the other person does not lose heart.
I learned how to help carry a burden without complaining.
I learned how to stay alongside another until the task is accomplished.

The older boy did not put the little boy down or mock him for his failed attempts.
The older boy did not impose his way of doing things on the little boy who was just not ready.
The older boy never left the side of the younger boy.
The older boy was exuberant in his praise.

It was only two steps a cynic might say.
However, they were big steps to the little boy.
The older boy was young enough to remember.
It wasn’t that long ago he struggled, too.

It was only two steps.
Two large steps from the little boy’s perspective.
Two large steps that seemed a lot more doable with an encourager by his side.
Do you know anyone who needs your encouragement today?