I feel like God posed a question to me today that I would like to share with you as you read this post. The question is quite simply, what are you holding on to that is keeping you from experiencing me more fully? Let me explain...
This question came to me when I took my daughter to the park earlier today. We were both enjoying the weather as we walked down the sidewalk. We chased each other’s shadows on the ground and my daughter had the biggest grin on her face knowing she was going in the direction of the park. She was toting her new Dory Sippy cup with her, drinking her watered down apple juice, and she didn’t have a care in the world. From my perspective, I was watching her with pride and amusement. My daughter is growing up so fast. She is a little over two years old now and she stands a lot taller, walks a lot better and talks in unintelligible sentences so much more day after day. The park isn’t far from our house so it didn't take much time to get there. However we stopped several times over the block and a half to marvel at the birds flying over head, the airplanes in the sky, the insects on the ground and thinking back on it all, I don’t know that I would have appreciated or even remembered all these details had I not stopped and marveled with her. It’s funny how easy it is to walk through life and not really experience it. Or to be on auto-pilot sometimes which in turn filters away the joys of life that God has created all around us. When we arrived at the park, the first thing I did was ask Sophia whether I could hold her sippy cup thinking that it would free her up to play more fully and enjoy the park. Like most two year olds, I heard the word “noooooooooo” and I responded to her with an “okay” knowing full well that eventually I would be picking that thing up off the ground as I followed her around the jungle gym. First she ran underneath to a tunnel section and she sat down with her cup, took a drink and gave me a big smile through one of the openings in the tunnel. As I walked around to get a better vantage point, she crawled through the tunnel slowly with her cup in her arms cupped like a baby doll and was then quickly off to the next thing. She walked up the stairs and made her way to the tornado slide which she rethought and then went to one of the tunnel slides (which she loves to slide down and then walk back up). As I followed her to that slide, that is when the thought first really came to my mind more clearly. Sophia would have so much more fun if she wasn’t holding on to her cup. But she still wasn’t willing to part with it so I just let her continue to play and find creative ways to keep it with her. She slid down the slide and once she reached the bottom, just as she always does, she got up and tried to climb back up the slide. But this time she only got up the slide about half way before she realized that she needed to put her hands down to stabilize and since she had that cup in one hand, she could never make it all the way back up the slide despite several attempts. From her daddy’s perspective, I’m not trying to take her cup away so she can’t have it. I am trying to take it away so she can enjoy herself more and it would be available to her should she ask for it or need it. So once again, what are you holding on to that is keeping you from experiencing me (God) more fully? In the past, I’ve held onto my relationships, my church, my finances, my job… Therefore I need to self evaluate, perhaps daily, whether there is something in my life right now that is keeping me from living the life that he has created for me to live.
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June 2021
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