I remember when were were kids (she was a year older) than I was. She was so tall and athletic and we'd always run races down the dusty dirt road barefoot. I was always kind of short and squatty and I always knew she would win, but I always raced her anyway.

Anyway, this one day in particular, It was hot and dry and about lunch time or so, Dad came in from the field to eat and saw me pouting the way I always did, and told me " Oh, don't feel bad, you can outrun her any day of the week, all you need is a little grease on your heels."

Dad got out some thick black grease of some sort, and  smeared it on my heels and told us to run again. I clentched my fists, and jutted out my chest and headed down the dirt road. Beulah wasn't far behind me, but SHE WAS BEHIND ME!   I was so proud. My sister came in panting and crying "Daddy, now you know that wasn't fair. Put grease on my heels now and we'll just see who runs the fastest."

I will never forget the lesson we both learned that day from our Daddy when he said to her " It wasn't the grease that made her faster or you slower, It was that she knew she would win even before she started, and you knew you would lose."   

We learned one of the greatest lessons ever taught or learned together that day - that you really can do anything you believe you can, and you are only beaten when you know you are beaten.

Sometimes when things get really hard for me, and I don't know if I'm going to make it, I see all that dust flying on that old dirt road, and my sister running the race with me, and Daddys voice saying to us "All you need is some grease on your heels."  It makes me know that I can succeed if I just finish the race.