Swimming frustration - by Jason

Aidan started swimming lessons this week. He did well on Monday, although he said later, "they didn't teach me to swim!" He was expecting to come out an Olympic champion, but instead was relegated to a small group of like-aged children whom the instructor ran after for most of the lesson. They played games and "got used to the water" - as though the molecular compound that makes up 80% of our bodies is completely foreign to us. Tuesday, Aidan did not want to go in the water - he did not say why. So I'm struggling with how to make swimming a positive experience for him. Part of me wants to bribe him - give him a treat or something for going in the water. Part of me wants to guilt him into joining the swimming class - I paid good money for it. But in the end I want him to feel loved and appreciated for WHO he is, not simply for WHAT he does. I'm not sure how to achieve that. So we stayed the entire lesson, watching the class. We'll do the same all this week if necessary. I wonder how God deals with this. Like when He gives me an opportunity to learn, grow, expand my proverbial horizon - and I choose not to. Or when I live with guilt and fear and sin, even though He already paid to free me from those bonds. All I have to do is "join the class" of the saints who are trying to live like the people they've become in Christ. Yet I falter...