Oversized shoes?

It's been interesting over the past five years of teaching how many times I've told my students to "act their age," or to just "grow up." In an effort to encourage my students to grow into the adults that God has planned them out to be, I've forgotten a very important lesson that I learned as a small child. When I used to try to walk in my mothers high-heals or my fathers big work boots I would inevitably fall over my own feet. Instead of tying my own little shoes and being able to run freely, I longed to fill the shoes of someone bigger. It's human nature to desire to grow, develop, and to take on more responsibility, but it is a messy process.
I've recently been dealing with a lot of students falling over their, still adolescent, feet in an attempt to make very adult choices. Many of them are Seniors and will be leaving school next year and entering into a world where they will be required to make these choices on their own. I've been frustrated with trying to "deal" with their mistakes and then a revelation came to me. My mother didn't punish me for trying to walk in her shoes, she picked me up when I fell and brushed me off. She told me to be careful if I was going to try to walk in her shoes because I might get hurt, and then she let me try to walk again.
What a great lesson. I need to let them fall, pick them up, and encourage them to try again (and to ask for help). I can not get mad at them for trying to do what we've been teaching them, rather allow them to fall and get scraped up. Watching from the side isn't easy, but more beneficial to them than refusing to let them try to walk in shoes the next size up.
After all, isn't that what God does with me? He sits patiently and allows me chance after chance to fall, and then tenderly picks me up, brushes me off, and encourages me to walk again. How could I have made it this far without His encouragement and how will I ever grow into the person He wants me to be if I don't continue to try?