Comfort with the father

I attended a track meet yesterday. My twelve year old daughter was competing against other girls. Her best event is the hurdles which is one of the first events of the meet. During practice Tuesday, she took a tumble on the hurdles. She landed on the asphalt and the wounds were visible. My concern at the meet was to how she would react at the first hurdle. They hadn't practiced since Tuesday so this would be her first time over a hurdle since her tumble. I didn't get a chance to talk to her before hand, but she had stated at home that the injuries didn't bother her. She always looks out of place at the starting line as the other girls are at least 6-8 inches taller than she is. When the gun went off, she started off well with the other runners. She came to the first hurdle and stopped. She didn't have her steps right. She crawled over the first hurdle and continued the rest of the race with no problems. She wasn't able to catch the others in this short race but I was proud that she finished the race.
She was terribly disappointed. After the race, her friends started over to comfort her. She walked right past them and ran to my arms. A great feeling for any dad. A child that knows that she can find comfort in your arms. As I talked to her, to encourage her about future races, I discovered that she hadn't taken any practice runs over the first hurdle. This might have put any fears about that hurdle to rest.

We also have a place to run when we need comfort. We can run to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. The more trouble we have, the more He can comfort us. When God comforts us, our troubles don't disappear. We are just able to deal with our pain and troubles. Just as I didn't make my daughter's struggle go away, I comforted her to help her deal with the situation.

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