A few weeks ago, I took my 3 year old to a birthday party.  While at the party he saw all the pretty colored balloons and decided he wanted to take one home.  The party mom gladly gave him one and we were off to head home with a big blue balloon in hand.  I gave him the talk as I always do about holding the balloon string as tightly as he can and not letting go.  I continue by saying if you let go, the balloon will fly away.  Because this episode has happened several times with the talk followed by the balloon getting away I tried to stress again the importance of holding the balloon tightly.  Of course, my son is so excited he listens but somehow usually loosens his grip.

This particular day after leaving the party, I commence with the talk & we begin to walk to the car.  I’m nervous he’s going to let the balloon go so I hold the string with him.  That works well and we get into the car and drive home.  After we get home, I decide to let him hold the balloon by himself and see if he’s mastered the skill on the short walk to our house. I tell him again he needs to hold it tight.  As I venture to get him out of his car seat, he lets go of the balloon by mistake and it flies away.  He screams and begins to cry because he realizes his blue balloon is now gone, floating away to the sky, and there’s nothing he can do about it.

This experience reminds me of trust and the delicacy of it.  When we are untrusting of someone because of a previous experience we had, we constantly have the talk with them about what they need to do to hold the balloon and not do something that causes them to loose the balloon.  Or maybe we hold their hands in everything because we are afraid of them losing the balloon.  It also reminds me that even though we may have lost our balloon, we are sometimes given second chances or do overs.

My encouragement to you is whether you’ve lost trust in someone or something, someone has lost trust in you or you are uneasy about rebuilding trust, remember we all had a blue balloon at one time and had to learn how to hold on to it.  We may have failed or lost it at some point, but many times, we deserve a second chance.  Are you willing to allow that person or thing another chance at holding the balloon? Are you willing to rebuild what you lost? Are you willing to let go and let that person try again?  Hold on to your balloon and enjoy the journey along the way.

~Coletta Jones Patterson