Concentrate on your boat

We all memorized this little song when we were kids. Well, most of us, anyway, are a little older. “Row, row, row, your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, life is but a dream.” Do you remember it? This little song has four keywords, and there’s much to learn.

The first word is ROW. Rowing is a slow, methodical way of transportation, and it’s created by using your power. Not a motor-driven craft that will skim across the surface, missing all that may be right under its hull. When I speed through life, I miss watching the grandchildren grow or the wonders of nature. The final destination is death. Why are we in such a hurry? The word row is spoken three times. In the Bible, the number 3 appears 467 times. Its meaning is “completeness.” One row is just enough to break the water’s surface hold on the boat. Another word for water in the Bible is the truth. Two starts the movement into truth, and three brings the boat up to speed, catching the current, which will gently propel it. We can’t just sit idle and expect things are going to happen. It’s an effort that starts the process, and the universal energy of God’s will provides the power to move us along.

The second word is yours. Concentrate on rowing YOUR boat. Your boat is the only one that matters. It’s the only boat you have any control over. Focusing on someone else’s boat will leave you sitting idle with no gifts coming your way, as they’re only available in the stream of life. “God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”

The third word is GENTLY. Psalms 18:35 – “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” Gently row your boat, and your boat will carry you to greatness. “Courage to change the things I can.” Go easy on yourself since rowing any faster will not get you where you need to be any quicker. When you row faster, you miss all life’s incredible lessons. Rowing gently, you’ll experience all you were meant to experience.

The fourth word is DOWN. You row down the stream, which is the easier, softer way because there’s much less resistance going down than up. Rowing upstream takes a lot of energy and will end up where you began once the energy runs out. This is “the wisdom to know the difference.”

It’s such a powerful little song. It’s hard to believe this was in my head most of my life; I had never seen all the wisdom within its simple words.