As I said my boys are still small.
And when the youngest started to walk, his favorite place in the
house was the stairs. I think for any parent it is enough to give
them grey hairs! Because he would simply walk over to it and start
climbing the twenty stairs. Now and again he would look over his
shoulder to us and of course that was exactly when he would lose
his balance and fall right on his back. Or he would climb to the
top and then try to go down again, but due to his poor balance at
that stage he would lose his footing and fall. So we then decided
this is it, we are going to put gates in front of the opening to
the stairs and every time we needed to go up or down we would carry
him and not allow him to do it on his own for fear that he would
fall and hurt himself.
He grew older and we continued with
this ritual. We would carry him up and down the stairs. It wasn't
until one day that the Lord spoke to my heart.
"Why are you still doing this
Ilze?"
"Lord because I am afraid he is
going to fall and hurt himself if I let him walk by himself."
"And do you think he is ever going
to learn to walk by himself if you keep on preventing him to
try?"
"I guess not."
And that is when I realized that I
needed him to learn. He needed to try on his own. Yes, he will most
probably fall, but I will be right next to him to catch him. So
from then on, whenever we needed to go up or down, we would leave
him to try on his own, but we never left his side. We would steady
him if needed and grab him when he totally lost balance. And you
know what, it was merely a couple of months before he could go up
and down the stairs all on his own. I don't worry about him on the
stairs anymore. He mastered it and I could see it gave him a sense
of freedom as he could feel that we believed in his ability. And
whenever the next thing in life comes that he needed to master, he
will have the confidence to try.
And so it is the same with our
lives with God. Sometimes He needs to 'leave' us to try on our own,
to struggle on our own, in order for us to grow. He will always be
there to catch us when we fall, or to steady us when everything
gets too much, but we need to at least try. And before you know it,
you are a better person because of it. It will give you a sense of
freedom. It will liberate you into experiencing what it feels like
that the King of the Universe believes you. He trusts in your
ability to be able to handle the situation. And before long He will
start trusting you with even more.
Lord, please give us the courage to
try things on our own. But thank you very much that we can know
that You will be there, always encouraging us and if needed,
catching us when we fall. In Jesus' Name Amen.