Freedom

Today when I went to get a broom from under the sink in the gym, I noticed that there was a rat in the cabinet.  I am not fond of rats, but I could tell that he had been trapped in that cabinet with no way out but the door.  As I opened the door, I gave him a chance for freedom.  However, he did not understand that and in his fear he retreated under the dustpan.  The very thing he wanted most, he missed out on because of his fear.

There are a lot of things that we need freedom from-a bad habit, lying, busyness, pride etc.  Sometimes we are fearful that if we change, others won't like us the same.  Or we are fearful of letting something go because we don't know what will happen if we relinquish that control.  Yet, fear is what is holding us back from the freedom God wants us to have.  It sounds silly but freedom is so freeing.  A bird can't fly with a brick strapped to its' back.  Getting rid of those things, letting them go is the only way we can experience that freedom.

UPDATE:

We had the first day of tournaments yesterday.  Both of our teams won.  The girls were supposed to play at 3:30.  At 4:30 we were still waiting for the team to show up. Imagine that in America?  Haha.  Here it is so common.  They are not dictated by a clock.  Finally they showed up and it was so much fun to watch.  Girls won 3-1.  The boys game was really close for awhile but our boys won 10-5.  More games tonight.  And we have a middle school band concert tonight as well.  We have 7 middle schoolers in the dorm and they all play a different instrument.  Last night was very musical as they all practiced their songs.

Here are some pictures of the tournaments: