Last spring and throughout the summer our middle son, Tyler, attended wrestling clinics at our local high school. It was something we thought he might enjoy and it turned out he really liked it. He went to all the clinics and was told that he had made the team for the 08/09 season. This was exciting for him as an incoming freshman and he was anxious to start the school year and formally join the program.

A few weeks before school started in August I went to the wrestling website for our school and saw that Tyler was listed on the Junior Varsity team. Cool. Very exciting.

You see, Tyler's older brother plays baseball at this same school. As I have told you before the school is HUGE with over 5000 students. Making any sports team is quite an accomplishment. The baseball team has hundreds of kids that try out each year. I watch men with young little leaguers watching tryouts each year trying to figure out what to do to give their kids an edge when they reach the high school stage of their baseball career. Baseball is HUGE in California. Think Texas and football and you will get an idea of how huge it is. When someone finds out our son is on this baseball team they are always impressed. He must be really good they say.

We are very proud of our oldest son. He works hard at his baseball and has big dreams. However, our middle son was not a sports star. Were any of you the younger sibling to an over achieving older sibling? If you were...I feel a little sorry for you.

This is one of the reasons I felt so happy for Tyler when he made the wrestling team. It was something of his own. He was really good at it. It's the one thing he could beat his older brother at. Actually all the boys on the baseball team wrestled him for fun. Tyler beat them all, and earned their respect.

At the end of September the new wrestling coach called a workout for anyone who hadn't tried out before and wanted to. Those who had already made the team were to go as well. They had to be at the school by 5:30 a.m. every day that week for workouts.

Tyler went.

He loved it.

When the new roster came out a few days later Tyler had been cut from the team, with no explanation given.

Hubby spoke to the coach and no real explanation was given. Everyone was shocked.

I was furious. I stood upstairs in my laundry room folding clothes and crying my eyes out.

Why?

This child who always has to live in his brothers shadow finally had something of his own and it was taken away.

Why had they listed him on the roster for months and then cut him at the last minute?

Why put him on there at all if you weren't sure. I just didn't get it.

Tyler took the news well and said he would try again next year.

I continued being hurt for him and furious with God for letting this happen.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no
faith?"

Fast forward a few months to this morning.

I dropped Tyler off at his new school.

The one I love. The one who teaches a Christian world view and not a secular world view.

The small school where he is going to play football. He is excited.

I realized this morning that if he had stayed on the wrestling team his Dad and I never would have moved him from that high school (which I hate!).

Last week when I had to go into the attendance office to un-enroll him from his current high school I ran into one of the wrestling moms. She asked me why Tyler quit the team? Ha, that is funny, I thought. He got cut. The parents have all been shocked by this. It seems no one has ever been cut after being placed on the roster. Tyler was good. He gets good grades. He doesn't cause problems. Why in the world would they cut him?

No one has been able to get an answer to this question.

However, this morning it hit me that this might have been a plan orchestrated by God. I pray everyday that God's will, not my own, will be done in our children's lives. Is this part of his plan for Tyler? Is this the reason that he was cut?

I don't know the answer to that question for sure, but I do know that an incredible weight has been lifted off of our shoulders. I never wanted him at that other school. I wanted him at this one. I felt very uneasy about him being there, heck, I feel uneasy about our oldest being there, and that is a whole other story for another day.

Today I am basking in the love of a Heavenly Father who took care of my family even when I was clinching my fist at him in anger.

Oh I of so little faith.

Jesus told them "Don't be afraid; just believe."