Teetering

The title says it all.  That is what I have been doing since September...the last post...teetering on the verge of writing another one.  It is so easy to get out of the routine and it's not like I haven't had anything to say.  It's just that the phone doesn't work in the shower, texting while driving is against the law here, and various other inopportune moments have partnered with my moments of inspiration.  Okay, life got in the way.  BUT...thanks for coming back to the 'Spring' and I resolve in this new decade to be more diligent in maintaining the blog!  So, with that said...

Our 3-year old loves to run.  He loves to be chased.  So one of our evening rituals is that I chase him through the house.  Now, at 40/30 (that's 40 years old and 30lbs outta shape) it is to my advantage that we live in a small house and the span of our living room is just a few steps across.  But, for him it is enough and that is what is important.

One thing I have always done is stay close to him while we run and kind of nudge him in the back.  He will fall in quite the dramatic fashion and roll across the carpet laying there doing his best "possum" impersonation.  Then he jumps up and off we go again.

I have noticed over time that it takes a little more nudge to get him off balance.  He is growing .  He is getting stronger and his balance and coordination are improving.  He is learning how to handle losing his balance. 

Reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome:

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:1-5)

 Life pushes us at different times and at different strengths.  But, as our experience with God and subsequently our faith grow, then we become better able to maintain our balance.  There will be times when we still fall.  But it is also through those times that we build endurance and our time lying on life's basement floor will be shorter.  And the peace of God which comes from his Spirit in us will produce the character that continues to produce hope. 

None of this is automatic.  It is not without our desire for our faith to grow stronger.  It is not without our willingness to allow God to work through the good AND the not so good times in our lives.  It is not without an effort to cultivate a closer relationship with Him.  We have to make a choice.

Are you teetering?