Baby Steps

My son started walking just a few days ago. I get so much joy out of watching him toddle across the floor, and I can just imagine what is going on inside his mind. Perhaps it is something like this:

A wobble, a step...oops, dipped to the side - steady, steady...okay, here we go. Step, step...hey, I'm really getting somewhere now! Whoa - concentrate! Good thing that wall was there. Okay...ready. Step, pick my foot up - hey, where did she come from?! Doesn't she realize I'm trying to think? Man, big sisters sure can get in your way! All right...one more step, lean to the left, lean to the right - too much right! Just a few more...and yeah! At the couch at last!

He's so proud of himself when he reaches his destination! He throws his little arms in the air, his eyes shining with excitement that he wants all of us to share. "Yea!!!!" he shouts, waiting for us to join in with our chorus of congratulations.

I feel like my son sometimes in my Christian walk, especially now that I have committed to listening closely to God and to saying Yes when He asks that of me. A temptation here, a stumbling block there, a busy moment turning into a busy weekend without a dedicated time of being quiet in Him. Wobble, lurch, hesitate, step.

1 Corinthians 10:12 reads, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." (NASB)

But the road isn't always easy. He doesn't promise that it will be. But in the next verse He does promise this:

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." (NASB)

So there it is. If we want to stand in Him, he asks us to take heed that we do not fall. But he promises that though our steps may not be easy, they will never be impossible. If we stay in Him, if we keep our feet on His path, we will reach our destination. We may be bumped and bruised, but we won't be lost.

What a relief it is to know that our burdens will never be bigger than the shoulders God has given us to carry them on.

Let's travel onward, my friends.