When You Feel In Over Your Head
I’m excited to share this FREE video with you today, Parenting Simply and Sincerely. It’s a part of the Parenting Teen Summit by Axis. To watch Parenting Simply and Sincerely click here! Or scroll down for more information.
With her wings in place and her fairy tutu around her waist, my daughter skipped over to her daddy. For days she’d been begging him, “Fly me like a fairy!” And today was her day.
Luke wrapped one strong hand around her wrist and the other around an ankle and with a slight bend of his knees he turned his toddler from an ordinary girl who walked on two legs into a fairy who knew how to fly.
She flew around the kitchen with a grin and a giggle. With her arms extended as far as they could reach, she relished this moment.
Right up until Daddy took it up a notch.
Apparently, the first few swings were merely a warm-up. As the swings became longer and higher our fairy’s smile disappeared.
“Too high! Too high!” she yelled.
Maybe you know the feeling.
You pray and you hope for something woven deep in your soul. You dream of the day God lifts you off the ground and gives you wings. Then, God’s strong arm takes you higher than you expected and, instead of smiling, that rise in altitude leaves you reaching for the ground.
Sometimes I think God refuses to let us walk because He knows – in His arms – we can fly.
More than a decade ago, I held my first son in my arms. The build up to this baby was big.
I scoured magazines and stores for just the right nursery design. We darkened the edges of the baby name book considering syllables and meanings and how it fit with our last name. Joy oozed out of our pores as we anxiously awaited the day we would meet our boy.
We loved him and held him and rejoiced at his birth … then, the doctors told us to take him home. Say what?
I sat outside the hospital with my bundle in my arms thinking, Who could possibly believe it is a good idea to send this child home with me?
Deep down in my heart I screamed, Too High! Too High!
With shaky hands we secured him in his car seat and took the plunge. The next several months I wondered where all these “instincts” were that I’d been hearing about.
And when it came time to have another child I told God,
“You’ve got the wrong girl.”
I worried my way through my second pregnancy confident I could barely manage one child and clueless about what to do with two.
Too High! Too High!
I’ll jump to the end of this tale … I have six little bundles now. Six! I have no idea how we do it, and we don’t do it well every day, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The other day, a few of those kids asked to plant mustard seeds in the yard. We had a little jar full of these seeds Jesus talks about in Matthew,
… ‘if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move. Nothing would be impossible’” (Matthew 17:20)
We lost a few seeds before any made it to the dirt. They really are tiny! Even in the palm of even a preschooler’s hand, the seeds seemed to almost vanish.
My favorite part of the planting was watching their eyes light up with wonder. Their excitement didn’t blossom from the near-invisible seed in their hands. Instead, it bloomed from the expectation of what it would become.
They’d heard Jesus’ words and believed Him … a small seed of faith planted in God’s power produces the impossible.
God took me higher than I ever imagined and I begged him to please put my feet back on the ground I knew so well. But, much like my fairy princess in her daddy’s arms, God’s strong grip secured me.
Parenting Simply and Sincerely
If you’re facing new heights, maybe raising children or maybe transitioning in another place in life, I want to invite you to join me at the Parenting Teens Summit today. They’ve titled my interview, Parenting Simply and Sincerely, but what we talk about touches so much more than parenting. We talk about dreams and releasing them to God. I share about how we’ve handled transitions and a few ways to make them smoother.
It’s real truth God’s taught me along the way, and I’m blessed to be able to share it with you. To watch Parenting Simply and Sincerely click here! You’ll get access to the FREE pass and also have the option to purchase an all-access pass. I hope to see you there!
