Snap Shot of Grace

I grew up in a family that loved to play Scrabble. We are all pretty good, my father and older brothers are even better. I have only beaten them once in my adult life. The rules of the game state that if you play a word and it is incorrect, you have forfeited your turn. As a child and even into teenage years, I would get stuck, immoblized by fear of losing my turn and getting zero points. Fear of once again failing. Often my brothers would not be helping the situation, picking on me to speed it up and play. So eventually, I would play some word that was incorrect, there by fulfilling my fears and begin to get frustrated at myself. I should have lost my turn. I should have not been allowed to try again. I should have been ridiculed for my lack of aptitude. But instead my dad would lean around to my side and look at my tiles. He would find some combination of letters that would make up a word that would play perfectly in a spot I had somehow missed. Did I ever win the game because of his help? No. But did that even matter? No.

As I grew older, I forgot the lesson of my dad. In Scrabble and in real life, I wanted to follow the rules exactly because that was the "right thing to do." Over the past few years, I have been reminded that we all need someone to lean over our shoulder and help us pick up the pieces and try again.