Chapter 4 - Go for it.

As I mentioned before, every once in a while I learn something from one of my kids.  They help me see something that seems so simple, yet we miss it because we over think or over analyze situations. 

While I was away in Wisconsin, my brother-in-law and I watching my daughter Lilly and his son Carson. They are close in age and working on a lot of the same developmental skills.  Both of them were trying to get toys they wanted, and we began "coaching" them, that if they wanted the toy they could just get.  They could do it!

Lilly was sitting there wanting to play with the toy that was just out of her reach.  She is pretty mobile to a certain extent, but she doesn't crawl, but rather scoots, rolls, squirms, etc, to whatever she is wanting.  This particular time, it was just out of her reach and if she could crawl would have had it in a second.

I know she could crawl if she wanted to. She does everything that it takes to crawl, just hasn't put the coordination together to do it yet.  She has the power to do it, the strength to do it, the skills needed to do it, but just hasn't done it yet.

As I sat there watching here, it occurred to me that God was trying to teach me something.  That sometimes in our lives He gives us all the strength we need, all the skills we need, all the power we need, to complete a task, but we see it as just out of our reach so we don't try.  Often times it would be doing something that is uncomfortable for us at first, because we have never done that before.  It's a stretch for us.

As I thought about that, I wonder how many opportunities or blessings I have missed in my life because I didn't use what God had given me.  I have heard it said that all we have to do is take the first step to meet God and He will do the rest.  I wonder though if it stops there.  Don't we have to continually take steps?  Aren't we children of God who in order to be adults have to learn to crawl, walk, and even run?  I wonder how many of us are still laying on the floor scared to crawl, scared to grow up, scared to try.

On a side note, Lilly still isn't crawling, but she will be any day.  She moves all over our living room like it is nothing, just not really in a forward motion or in a direct path.  It's a blast watching kids learn new things.  If its a blast for me, I can only imagine what it is like for God to watch us as we finally grasp concepts that seem so simple.