Boat Teaches Humility

Today, I am continuing with the thought that everything I needed to know about life, I learned from a boat. Only this time, Shannon, my niece, asked if she could be a contributor to the column since I let my two sons help me write one.

Like Shannon said, "In just one trip, I learned a lot about the importance of humor and humility from that little boat and, after all, I'm the one who named it 'Baby Boat' among other names I called it that today so long ago."

"Today," Shannon wrote, "I remember that my friend Tracy and I went to the beach with her Aunt Mary and my Aunt 'Laine to fish from the new boat.

They really wanted to get to the fishing, but being 15-year-olds in our tiny bikinis we begged them to drive us down the beach to show off and look for boys.

We were way to cool to sit up front with, of all things, our aunts, so we placed ourselves in the back of the truck on lawn chairs trying to look casual.

"We came up on 15 or 20 shirtless guys playing volleyball on the sand court. It was every teenage girl's Utopia. We struck a pose, pretending not to notice them, when out of the blue, Aunt 'Laine drove right out into the middle of their court and starts laying on the horn yelling, 'Hey, guys, we got girls!!' We hid under Baby Boat as Aunt 'Laine and Aunt Mary tore up the beach so that we could go and fish. They were laughing so hard they were crying. I had no idea that older aunts could laugh like that.

Lesson No. 1: Humor

When we got to where we were to fish, Tracy and I were told to put on long jeans and shirts for safety's sake and to put Baby Boat in the water. There was no way we were going to cover up our gorgeous bodies, so we just jumped into the boat and drove it out to where our aunts couldn't get us.

Baby Boat was basically a Kayak with a battery-operated tiny motor. We mastered boating pretty quickly so we just continued to boat around for pleasure and somewhat in fear of our aunts.

Suddenly Tracy yells, 'Shark!!' when we saw a fin sticking out of the water right next to us -- and I do mean right next to us. Baby Boat and her little motor were no longer fun as the shark fin followed alongside of us.

We even took off our flip-flops and started paddling like the wind. We screamed like 15-year-old girls, "Aunt Mary! Aunt 'Laine! Shark! Help!" They again were rolling with laughter, (humor lesson No.2) and one of them yelled back at us, "It is just a porpoise and we think it is only trying to mate with Baby Boat."

We abandoned ship, but when we jumped into the water, a jellyfish came straight across my bare stomach and got me.

Aunt 'Laine marinated my red, whelped skin with meat tenderizer of all things, and just said, "We told you to wear jeans and shirts."

Thus, Lesson No. 2: Humility
We learned that our two aunts had a great knowledge of the ocean and its dangers, but they were willing to share the humor and the humility with us. After all, isn't that what aunts are for?

Dear Lord, thank you for sharing life's lessons with Tracy and me. We still carry the lessons of humor and humility with us today.

1 Corintians 15:51 "Behold, I show you a mystery."

Today, I do not understand why:

I can cast over the railing on the pier, under the high line that is out over the water and hit within 6 inches of where I saw a redfish swirl;

I am able to tighten the drag and loosen the tension on my 45-year-old reel with the precision of a German watch-maker;

I am capable of telling if I am going to hook a reddish, flounder, or trout as soon as I feel the first tentative nibble of a bite;

I am gifted enough to perfectly cast a right-handed open-faced bait-casting reel and then immediately pick up and throw my left-handed spinning reel and fish with both of them at the same time;

But, today, I do not understand why, if I can do all these "fishy" things, I don't have the aptitude to operate a simple VCR.

Dear Lord, I guess there are a lot of mysteries in life I don't understand. But, because of you, God, I don't have to worry why.

Malachi 3:10 "Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing."

Today, on my way home, I stopped by a most unlikely place to fish because I could see the mullet working. I threw the cast net, got live bait, used them and caught three big flounder, the only fish I had caught all day.

As I continued home, I thanked God for my miracle catch of three big flounder. It took me a few more miles toward home before I got around to thanking God for the blessings of the little mullet that He provided that enabled me to even fish for the flounder.

That experience left me wondering if there were not many times we asked or thanked God for big miracles while forgetting to seek and savor the little blessings He gave us.

For example, when a storm is bearing down on my coast, I ask God for the miracle of His protection. I forget to thank Him for each peaceful, perfectly safe day He blesses me with.

Since I believe that if God meant people to fly, he would have given them wings and not just airplanes, I pray for the miracle of safety when my sons are flying all over this world. I sometimes forget to ask Him for the blessing of safety when they are flying down some expressway late for work.

I know some young women when they find that they are pregnant, stop any habits that might interfere with the miracle of birth of their baby, but they resume these same habits right after their child has received the blessing of life, as if those same habits don't still affect the life of their child.

When our loved ones are fading or facing a lift-threatening disease, we rush to God and beg Him for a miracle and make silly, little promises of things we will stop or start if God will only mind us. Yet we fail to thank Him for the daily blessings of some loved one's life that we have shared, nor do we mention to God anything we are willing to stop or start to continue the blessing of every day life.

Sometimes we need a dumb little mullet to teach us brilliant people lessons.

Dear Lord, forgive us when we pile up little blessings in an attempt to stand on them while straining to look for big miracles. You love us in little things as much as You show Your love through the big ones.