Recently, the van at the church was in need of a tire change, so being the manly man that I am, I leaped into action determined to prove that the title man had been earned and was well deserved. I grabbed all the tools necessary to change the van tire and sprang into action.

Follow up:

Long story short, and with much humiliation, 4 hours later, the car was jacked off the ground, the flat tire was removed, but the spare would not go on. It turned out that the van was jacked high enough to remove the flat, but not high enough to put on the inflated tire. I ran behind the van and went to work on the jack, only to find that it was fully extended. I went and purchased a jack from the auto store that was sure to help, but it only lifted the car an extra 3 inches or so, about 3 inches short of what I needed. I tried the jack in spot after spot, but alas the clock read zero. The score, Man 0, Tire 1!

Worse, my wife muttered the words that I was dreading to hear, let’s call road side assistance. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo! Not road side assistance. I am a grown man, with a wife and 4 daughters. That’s 5 women in my home that I am responsible for! Surely, I can figure out how to change this tire. Can’t I? I couldn’t. I fought the tire, and the tire won.

The wrecker pulled up to the church van with almost the same jack, placed the jack in the same spot I had been working at, pulled out a 4x4 and placed it under the jack, and raised the car up and placed the spare tire on. 10 minutes and $60 later, the wrecker was driving off, and I was defeated. Before the wrecker left, he told me, you were in the right spot, but needed a higher foundation to change the tire.

Lesson learned!!! All I needed was a little boost. All I needed was something to stand on that would allow me to reach new heights. All I needed was help and support. Most of all, I needed some wisdom and someone to teach me how to finish what I had started. I wondered to myself, how many of our students are in the right spot, have the right tools, understand the objective, but lack the foundational support to accomplish the task? How many students are just raring to I want to challenge all parents and educators to be 4x4 for their students.