Sunday, November 21, 2010

Lessons from a Pre-schooler

Sometimes God teaches us a lesson that makes us stop and wonder, how have I never seen this before? This is one of those:

I work as a gymnastics coach. And one of my most memorable experiences was one class that I filled in that was a pre-school class. Pre-school gymnastics....oh what fun! So the night before I was supposed to fill in, I sat there and prayed for patience with this class and that it would go well, and that the kids would listen because no matter how many times you yell-

And it's there that I stopped. It was one of those moments where you groan and kind of put your head into your hands. You know? I am a pre-schooler! Coaching a class of them, well it could be crazy... They have an attention span of about ten seconds. And their listening skills aren't much better. Soon you start to sound like a broken record, "Katie, sit down. Ryder, stay in line. Don't do that Jenna. Katie, please sit down. Bobby, keep your hands to yourself. Katie, sit down...." The good mood you went into the class with, doesn't always come back out.

Like them, our attention span is about ten seconds compared to God's. We can't even pray for more than five minutes! And our listening skills are worse! He tries to get through to us over and over again. He's practically shouting down at us. It's amazing that God never gets tired of us! Thank goodness God has more patience with us than I do with a bunch of three and four year olds! But even when we are like those pre-schoolers and it takes forever for God to get through to us and we don't listen and we're just running around around crazy, God loves us even then.

One of my favorite parts of coaching is when a kid gets a new skill. Their eyes light up and their so excited. And they can't wait to show the world, well at least their mom and dads. They finally understand, they finally get it. And when they look to their parents and show them, they're just as excited, if not more so, than their kid.

I wonder if God is like that when we finally learn something that He's been trying to teach us. When we finally get it, when we finally understand. I can imagine God looking down and and His eyes shining with excitement. Being our proud Father. And He can't wait for us to share it with the world.

I know I'll never know everything about God. I'm not supposed to. That's where faith comes in. But we have to be ready and listening to what God does want us to learn.

And I'm so thankful that He's so patient with this pre-schooler.

*And since then, I regularly coach pre-school classes and I love them now!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Trusting God

I thought once I got a blog, I'd be writing in it alot....but I was wrong! Anyway, it's been so crazy. Time is going by too fast! The stores are playing Christmas music already!

But God has been teaching me so much lately. About trusting Him, and giving it all to Him. I recently read the book Radical by David Platt. Great book. It challenged me so much. One of the points that he makes that really got my attention was on page 23:

David Platt is talking to a wealthy man who is thinking of giving away much of what he owns after hearing a sermon on giving to the poor. And the man asks if what he's thinking is crazy, "I wonder at some point if I'm being irresponsible or unwise. But then I realize there is never going to come a day when I stand before God and He looks at me and says, 'I wish you would have kept more for yourself.' I'm confident that God will take care of me."

And that's the question that it all boils down to, do we trust God? Do we trust Him enough to let go and let God ruin our life for the normal? Because if we give our all to God, He's going to take it and turn it into some extraordinary. But do we really trust Him to give Him our all? Our life? Our future?
 This is the point I've been stuck at for some time. The point between faith and fear. God is waiting for us to take that step in faith. And even if we fall, He will always be there to catch us. But we have to take that first step.

And if you really get down to it, and really think about it, if God is for us who can be against us? Yes, God might take our life and turn it upside down, but the rewards for living for Him are totally worth it. It all starts with trusting Him.

Psalm 62:8,"Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge."