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"Watch out, lit'l guy!" reverberated the panic-coated voice of my husband, Louis. "If you go down there alone, you could get killed!"

            "I know," the despondent looking little boy murmured with crisp determination. "I want to kill myself. Skiing is too hard! It's no fun!"

            Oh boy! pondered Louis, That’s all I need. A pack of little kids who've never skied before! And one of em's suicidal! Help me God...!

            Those crusty white Cevennes mountain slopes concealed more about child-training than one ever could have imagined. Behind their glittering grandeur sparkled many timeless truths. A special winter sports outing had been organized for our Christian Day School. Louis had offered his skills as a previous cross-country ski-instructor to teach the primary class. As he prayed for divine wisdom, he soon learned that skiing and parenting have a lot in common. After carefully persuading this anguished little boy that sliding down the snow banks was fun, another forlorn whimper came squeaking through the snow-laden trees:

            "How much further is it, Pastor Louis? It seems so far!" sobbed poor little Pauline! "Are we near the end? Is it far, Pastor?! Is it gonna be much further?"

Her pitiful cry was amplified by the fact that they were only at the beginning of the trail. They still had a long way to go.

            "Now, Pauline," Louis tenderly put his arms around her tiny shoulders. "Skiing is fun! See how all the other kids are enjoying it", he white-lied, trying to coax her on.

            "But it seems so far! Will we soon be there? I'm tired!"

Those daunting slopes seemed to engulf her.

            "Well, I have an idea, little Pauline. I'll just stand right behind you and hold you in between my skis. You just relax and trust me! Wherever I ski, you'll just ski also. And I'll be holding you up all the time."

At first Pauline didn’t look too convinced. But once the procedure was being put into practice, her face began to beam like a sun-splashed snowflake! Getting safely to the other side had become sheer exhilaration! And the damp snow turned into a dazzling, diamond playground! By the end of the day, Pauline was a skiing fanatic!

My husband shared this story in church as an illustration of Christ's upholding power along the way. Sometimes life seems so long! So difficult! The end is nowhere in sight. This is especially true for all the single mothers raising children alone. Oh, if we could only see the end, we would take courage to go on! But the days can be long and dreary. The trails of life can be so intimidating and the slopes just seem too steep. . . until we look heavenward. 

Read what this story teaches us about biblical parenting, and find many more stories and their applied truths in Janey DeMeo’s book, Heaven Help Me Raise These Children! Biblical Direction for Practical Parenting Issues.