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Bill and I took our two girls, McKenna and Grace to a nearby waterpark called Schlitterbahn. (Rated #1 in waterparks on the Travel channel.) Yes, it was a glorious day with sunshine, cool water and fun hanging out with our kids on a Monday.

The thing that really stuck with me was watching my 5 year old daughter Grace. She just learned how to swim 2 weeks ago.

While out by our pool, Grace says "Mom, I'm going to do my swim lessons." A moment later, she says, "Look I'm swimming!" And she was! Now, you could say, that she was an apt student in her swim lessons class, the only thing is...she doesn't take swim lessons. Just a young girl that has decided to learn how to swim because everyone around her can swim.

She hasn't heard from other kids that swimming is hard or that 5 year old can't pick up a penny off the bottom of the pool. She would teach herself to learn something new each day. Doggie paddle swim, swimming with her face in the water, going under water, swimming across the pool, jumping into the pool swimming to picking up a penny off the bottom of the pool. Fabulous to witness first hand!

That was 2 weeks ago. Yesterday, Schlitterbahn.

Big slides, white water tube rides and a huge amount of courage.

Of course, we offered the "kiddie area."

No go.

With her lifejacket on, Grace wanted to do a big slide. Yes, as her mother, I felt a little stab of apprehension but I knew that Schlitterbahn prided itself with its safety with lifeguards stationed throughout the many rides. Okay, it did help a bit to see a few other small children go down.

Big slide and a 5 year old with no obvious fear.

Of course, the slide was no problem for her the first time or the many times after that.

Always looking for my life lessons, I started watching this beautiful 5 year old girl that was not going to live in fear. She would see little ones all around her on tube rides and giant slides that would balk and their parent would have to walk them back down the stairs. Grace was powerful to watch, even her 14 year old sister, McKenna was saying, "How can she do that?" (Go on the big rides without fear.)

Well, here's the lesson. Yes, Grace probably felt some fear, but was not going to miss out on the experience by living in the fear. She knew the alternative was the kiddie area and that wasn't what she wanted to do.

So, what can we learn from a sweet little 5 year old girl?

Are you allowing fear to stop you? In what ways are you allowing fear to control your life? Are you going to be stuck in the kiddie area or are you going to face the fear and do it anyway?

I'll look forward to hearing your results!

Attracting Greatness,

Tammi