As I watch this baby take her first steps, I find that I am also watching many others, including myself, taking their first baby steps too.
In the movie What About Bob Richard Dreyfus, playing a psychologist, hands the book Baby Steps to his patient, played by Bill Murray. He tells his patient that baby steps "mean setting small reasonable goals for yourself one day at a time . . . one tiny step at a time."
Baby Steps in the Big Picture
We all have big goals, big dreams for ourselves and our families. We want to raise Godly kids, so we take the baby steps along the way to pray with them and for them.
We want a new car, so we begin researching and looking at our options.
We want a nicer looking yard, so we begin by pulling some weeds.
Some goals are scarier.
We want our hearts to heal, so we begin taking steps toward healing by making ourselves vulnerable before others.
In making myself vulnerable, as a continuation of my own healing, I have created a blog that moves me from journal writing to writing on the internet and delving into a technical world that I know NOTHING about. This giant baby step has brought forth all sorts of crazy emotions and insecurities. But step by step the learning curve gets a little less curvy, but not less scary, yet.
Looking at the big picture can be daunting, and oftentimes may seem as if the desired end result is an impossibility.
I find myself drawn to Mary's story in Luke when I face those impossibilities. Mary had her own goals and dreams, but when asked to bring forth the Son of God into this world she replied, "Let it be to me according to your word." Luke 1:38 She submitted her will over to God's plan for her life.
It takes daily baby steps to move toward a faith like Mary's. It takes reading her whole story to know that in the end it will all work out. The journey is never easy! Mary watched her son die on the cross. It can't get much worse than that! But in the end, He rose from the dead, bringing hope to a broken world.
And that is what we are left with. . . hope!
Hope that baby step by baby step we will reach our goal, or better yet His goal for our life, for our childrens' lives, for our healing, for our purchases, for this blog.
I pray this weekend you find hope in looking at the big picture of God's plan for you. I pray for courage to trust God with your will, knowing that He may ask you to trust Him with His will for you instead. I pray that after the butt drops and face plants of your failures and insecurities that you will find enough faith, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, to get back up and continue taking one baby step at a time toward fulfilling His purpose for your life.
I'm leaving you with a verse and a video. Find joy in the first and enjoy the second!
"Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Matthew 17:20