I can do it myself, can’t I?

I recently went to town with my youngest daughter. We had a list of jobs and several things to buy and we had a great time. We laughed, we walked and I had to keep reminding her that we couldn’t buy everything in town.

At first, my daughter insisted on carrying everything and as you can see in this photo at one point she had a guitar bag and a bag of groceries. After the next shop where we bought two lamps (and if she had had her way we would have also bought a set of Frozen themed Monopoly) she realized she couldn’t carry everything. I carried the lamps and the groceries (apart from the chocolate that she kept hold of) and she carried the guitar bag. A little way down the road she felt tired and so I ended up carrying the guitar bag too.

We made it to our final shop and collected a guitar that had been repaired. As we headed back to the car my little girl asked if she could carry the guitar. I was a bit nervous about this as it is worth a few hundred  pounds (actually I was nervous carrying it!) but I thought she would be careful with it.  We walked together and shared the load (don’t worry, she still had the chocolate) and we had a great time.

I was thinking about it later and our trip together reminds me a lot of my relationship with God.

I can do it by myself is not the best attitude: Sometimes we think we can manage without God but when we try to cope without him we get worn out really quickly.

God is our helper: When we give God our burdens he helps us to carry them but we have to trust him to carry them.

God wants to lead us through life: If we listen to God he can give us wise advice and guidance that will save us from problems.

God trusts us with things: I probably shouldn’t have let a 5 year old carry a fairly expensive guitar but I believed she could carry it safely and so I showed my confidence in her by allowing her to carry it.

It was so good for both of us when I was able to congratulate her at the car and tell her what a great job she had done.

God has faith in us and he wants to trust us to join him in his work, how good is that?

God delights in telling us when we bless him and when we do good.

God is with us in life, will we look to him, trust in him and let him lead?