Thursday, June 7, 2012

One Step at a Time!

Jonathan was such a great baby. He was usually happy and laughing and I never had many reasons to worry too much about him. He always seemed to make me feel like everything was fine. Have a bad day, come home to his smiles and laughs and it all dissappeared. Even when he was not feeling well, he still was pretty happy.

The whole first year of his life the one problem we seemed to have was ear infections. He constantly had an ear infection. We would get rid of one and a month later, we would have another one. We finally saw a doctor who refered us for him to get tubes in his ears.

The other thing that was beginning to weigh on my mind about this time was that he really wasn't walking. Now, I still wasn't too worried about it. He would crawl and stand, he just wasn't actually walking. I don't know what age you would actually worry about that, but being a first time mom, I worried a little about it.

Back to the ear infections. We took him in to get tubes put in his ears. It isn't a long or complicated proceedure but it does require them to be put to sleep. Obviously that was a little stressful just because he had not ever been put to sleep before. We went back with him until they were ready for him. They took him back, we walked around to the recovery area, and it was literally about two minutes and he was back in recovery. It took him five minutes or so to wake up and we were heading home. (One of the craziest experiences ever I think!)

He was cranky afterwards, but we took him home and laid him down for a nap. He took about a two hour nap and then woke up ready to play and as happy as he always was. I took him into the living room and put him down in the floor. The next thing I knew, he was pulling up on the end table. He had done that before so that wasn't a big deal. But then, he let go and just took off walking like he had been walking for months. I couldn't believe it. I guess the pressure and stuff in his ears had him off balance and wouldn't allow him to actually walk. He could stand but he couldn't take those steps.

The Lord reminded me of this story today. I think sometimes we are like Jonathan was. The pressures of life get us off balance and we have a hard time taking the steps we need to in order to move forward. Once something happens to change the pressure, we can start moving again.

This doesn't mean that the pressure will be removed. Maybe it will just be rebalanced or maybe we will just turn to the Lord and let Him hold the pressure up for us. Either way, when the pressure is shifted, we can start moving again. Until the pressure is shifted, as long as we get up and STAND, we will be ready to take off when the pressure shifts. Jonathan first steps were not a few slow steps and then falling back down. He was ready to walk because he had been taking small steps while holding onto the furniture and he had been STANDING when he couldn't walk. His strength was being built in the process.

Sometimes we don't see that the processes of life are building our strength. They are not there to tear us down. They are there to build our strength and prepare us for the next phase of life. So if you are going through a process and feeling pressure, turn to the Lord and let Him hold you up and prepare you for what's coming next.

Ephesians 6:10-13
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to STAND.

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