Stopped Dead In Your Tracks!

When our oldest was a little girl, she suffered from very low muscle tone and an auto-immune disease that ate away at her muscle fiber. All of this made her struggle with balance and the core strength she needed to be able to do the things that other children did without even thinking about it. Her unsteadiness made her fearful of falling and when winter came and ice covered the sidewalk, she was particularly nervous. Because of the inflammation, falling was more painful for her so that brought a paralyzing fear when it came to getting from the house to the car. She would literally freeze in her tracks.

All that is understandable, right? She was young, weak, and unstable and the ground was really hard! The part that didn’t make sense was that this overwhelming paralysis would stop her from moving forward for fear of falling … yet falling was not going to happen. Every step of the way we would have a firm grip on her little hand and had she begun to fall, we were right there to catch her before she would hit the ground.

I wonder how many times in life we are like little Emily, allowing our fears, which are often unsubstantiated, to halt any progress we could be making in life. How often do we forget that He is right there, holding our hand as He calls us to move forward in faith to fulfill His plan for us?

The fear of failing is a very real fear and I would guess that most of us suffer from it from time to time. We don’t want to disappoint. We don’t want to bring negative judgment upon ourselves. We don’t want to look foolish. But isn’t that making life all about “ME?”  My hesitancy to move forward and do something is because my failure to perform at a high enough level will make ME look bad. 

One of the greatest problems with this fear is that it is terribly contagious. If you are stuck and not moving forward in the direction God is nudging you, your kids will observe this and soon determine that God cannot be trusted and they will follow your lead. Hold steady! Don’t do anything rash! Wait it out and maybe God will find someone else to do it!

Why were you born? Why did God bring your children into the world? I really can’t answer that question in a specific manner for myself, my children or you and your children. But one thing is certain, if we stand still and play it safe we will not find our purpose and neither will they. Do yourself a favor and look up. The Father is holding your hand and though you may stumble here and there, He won’t let go and you won’t fall down. Trust Him. Take a step. Become who you were created to be.

“If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm;

Though he stumble, he will not fall,

For the LORD upholds him with his hand.”

Psalm 37:23-24