Stepping Out in Faith

Today I decided to take the kids for a walk and then go over to the park in town so I could let the kids play and take some pictures. Micah is all boy and just loves to climb all over the place. He usually wants to do everything that his big sister does, so I tend to watch him closely and tell him when there is something that he just can't do yet. Today for some reason, he didn't follow his sister everywhere. He was so busy climbing and running around and doing what HE wanted to do that I just stood back and watched what he could really do.

There is a pole that Micah always wants to slide down because he feels like a fireman then, but he usually has his daddy there to help him get onto it and gently hold on to him in case he lets go. Today he was busy doing everything on his own that I was a bit nervous when he went over to that pole; but he knew when he needed help because he looked at me and said "I need help mom!" So I held onto his waist and then told him to go ahead and lean over and try to grab ahold of the pole. I can remember when he was too small and couldn't reach that far, so it was a little bittersweet to see him reach out and grab that pole fairly easily. Then came the hard part....holding onto the pole, stepping off the platform, and wrapping his legs around the pole. I held onto him pretty good the first time because I was so scared he was going to let go of the pole and fall. He did pretty good though and then he started to slide down. I actually didn't even have my hands on him when he slid down that first time. I just had them REAL close in case he started to fall.

He was so proud of himself when I told him that I hadn't even held onto him as he slid down the pole! He asked for my help the next two times whenever it was time to step off the platform and wrap his legs around the pole, but the last time he didn't want my help. He wanted to try to do it all by himself. I still had my hands close by just in case he needed me, but he did everything on his own....except he slid down the pole a little too fast and didn't put his legs down on the ground soon enough. He bumped his upper lip on the pole when he hit the ground, but it didn't bleed or anything so I knew he was ok. He looked at me like it was my fault though, but I told him he did a GREAT job and just needed to remember to not slide down the pole quite so fast next time and he needed to look where he was going so he knew when to put his feet down.

As I sat here tonight thinking about our day, I realized how that "fireman's pole" is a good example of our walk with the Lord. When we are walking through trials, God is right there holding on to us and letting us know that He has us. Sometimes God asks us to step out in faith and do something we may not think we can do. "I need help Lord!" we may say, and He is always there saying "You can do this! I'm right here with you! I'll help you if you need it." It is so exciting when we take that step of faith and find out that we really could do a lot more than we thought we could! If we take our eyes off of where we are going, we can get hurt. Sometimes we may try to take things too fast and get a bit of a boo-boo. If we pay attention to God telling us when and where to go and keep our eyes fixed on our destination, we don't have anything to fear. We have the assurance that God is always right there beside us.