{"id":282,"date":"2010-06-29T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T09:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-perils-of-4-year-old-tennis.html"},"modified":"2010-06-29T09:25:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-29T09:25:00","slug":"the-perils-of-4-year-old-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-perils-of-4-year-old-tennis.html","title":{"rendered":"The Perils of 4-year old Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"ptbtennis.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, Peter asked Penny if she’d like to take tennis
\nlessons. “Yes!” she said, without a moment’s hesitation.<\/p>\n

So he took her over to our local tennis club and they
\nwatched the other kids play. <\/p>\n

Penny is 4 \u00bd. She wears 3T clothing. And although her
\nphysical therapist has been singing her praises<\/a> of late, Penny still has trouble
\nwith coordination, strength, balance, and speed. She has trouble, that is to
\nsay, with things like playing tennis. <\/p>\n

So Peter and Penny watched the other kids play. At the end
\nof their observations, Peter said, “I’m not signing her up. I’ll just teach her
\none on one.” Penny said, “Tennis lessons!”<\/p>\n

It was tempting to hold her back. It was tempting to wait
\nuntil we knew she’d fit right in and be just like the other kids. We didn’t want to set her up to fail, but we also didn’t want to wait until some
\nindeterminate moment in time when she suddenly was able to hit the ball like
\na pro.<\/p>\n

So yesterday she arrived, tennis whites and all. The only
\nother kid in the group was a six-year old boy who seemed to relish nailing the
\nball in the general direction of the instructor’s head. Peter was worried.
\nPenny was ready. <\/p>\n

When they returned, I listened to her recount the day: “I
\nhit the ball with the racquet. And I tossed it. All by myself. With no help.”<\/p>\n

“That’s my girl,” Peter said. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Peter asked Penny if she’d like to take tennis lessons. “Yes!” she said, without a moment’s hesitation. So he took her over to our local tennis club and they watched the other kids play. Penny is 4 \u00bd. She wears 3T clothing. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}