My five-year-old was tying her shoes today. Okay, she was velcroing her shoes. Is “velcroing” a word? Spellcheck seems to disagree but then it also just disagreed with the word, “spellcheck”. So back to the story…
My five-year-old was velcroing her shoes today. I’ll be honest. It took forever. She actually started at 4pm yesterday. Okay, that’s not true, but waiting on someone to tie their shoes gets old at about the 7 second mark. Job, I am not. That’s Job with a long “o”, not the way you make a living. Anyway, she was working on her shoes and I had this overwhelming urge to grab her feet and finish the job. (This time it is with a short “o”.) But the point is I wanted to grab her shoes and help her. Or at least hurry it along. But I didn’t. Because I wanted her to know that she could fix hernown shoes. And I wanted her to keep getting better at it. Guess how much better she gets at it when I do it for her? None. But today I took an extra 60 seconds and waited for her, and she took one more step towards being an independent capable possibly professional Velcro-er.
And I started thinking about how God looks at His kids. Namely, me. Life, obedience, holiness, all must look so simple to Him, and yet I sit here struggling with every moment of it. I make it much harder than it has to be sometimes. And I fail often. And I cry out to God, “How can you stand by and let all this happen? Are you even there? Do you really care?” (I deeply apologize for that rhyme. It was unintentional. I promise never to
use cheap rhyme schemes like that in my music.) But the truth is God is not absent. He is not passive. He is a loving parent, knowing that I must take these steps to become the man He wants me to be. He aches with my frustration. He longs for my joy and success but not at the cost of my growth. He can’t just rescue me each time. I have to walk the steps. And maybe then, someday, giving cheerfully, loving the unlovely, evangelism, holiness, all will be as easy as Velcro. But not today.
Todd. I wonder this so often.
There are times I imagine God looking down upon me thinking, “Steven. Come on. Use your head. You know I taught you better.”
But I also know there are days like today. When I go immerse myself in his creation (Shelby Farms here in Memphis) and I know he is pleased with our time together.
Beautiful illustration, thank you! I remember going through the same thing with my kids when they were young. But I didn’t realize at the time how it related to my relationship with God.
Love the analogy here. His patience for me is unending, and for that I am truly thankful. He’s more concerned with the process I’m going through than the end result.
Wow – I can’t even begin to explain all that reading this post means to me. A couple months ago I started down a road I knew to stay away from and yet I knowingly started down the path anyway. And here I am now dealing with the pain of being down that path. I never once asked how I got there because each step was intentional. I just didn’t want to obey God anymore on that issue. As I am dealing with the pain of that situation – hearing you describe God as watching me His child with Love waiting for me to “velcro my shoes” cause He knows it will make me into the woman He has created me to be – is incredible. Thank you!
I had an overwhelming urge to grab your computer and fix the link you were trying to post to this.
Glad I waited.. Great post. Looking forward to the new album.
Thanks for sharing your gift of writing thought provoking lyrics, and blog posts. I’ve been in that situation before with my daughter and never made that connection.
God’s funny like that, isn’t He? Sometimes I think He gives us the privilege of being parents so that we can get a little glimpse into how He feels when He’s parenting us.
Just wait til she comes home from school with orders from her teacher to get laces and learn how to tie those! Velcro is easy compared to that one.
Here’s an almost welcome to the Skorinc family. Can hardly wait for the new website. I know it will be great.
I actually miss those days! I remember finding “how to tie your shoes” shoelaces when she was 4 or 5. We were in Albuquerque. In the 4 hour drive back to Amarillo, she got it! The laces were half blue & half white. I know the point of the story is patience & listening for what God is trying to teach us. But, in that ride, I didn’t have to worry about impatience. I didn’t stand above her & tap my foot. I also think God wants us to learn that things happen in His time. Not mine, not yours, not the child’s. God is an amazing teacher! 🙂
really felt that one. God has brought my wife and i through some trials this past year and i really mean “through” those trials. not around, not softened the blow, not plucked us out of it, not a cushy ride at all. we suffered through every moment and grew because of it.
all the while, and i see it now, God knew what He was doing, knew where we were going and waited patiently for us to come back to Him and reach out to Him.
praise to the Almighty for His patience.
Just wait till she’s learning to drive! ! !
Whole new level of understanding 😉
Todd, thanks so much for the awesome illustration. I think, probably all of us have experienced this in one way or another, but experiencing it and understanding it are two totally different things! Thanks for the good little devotional thought.
Dear Todd. Hello I am a nursery teacher at the Tucson Waldorf School. I once wrote a marine cadence for Kindergarten teachers. The line was, Baking bread is what we do and we tie a lot of shoes…….. ANyway, I appreciate your insight and have been deeply moved and inspired during the two concerts I have attended of yours. Hope you come back to Arizona soon. thank you kate Donnelly
Thanks for this!
I’ve been a follower of Jesus for 27 years … the more “mature” I get the more I feel like I can’t even put on my flip flops! I guess we need to learn to rest in Him and put our hope in Him ONLY! I can’t wait “to see the thread of grace that ran through all my pain!”