Firecracker Frenzy - Going Over the Hurdles of Life

Hi Friends,

This weekend we did a gymkhana show - the Firecracker Frenzy. It was a lot of fun and all 3 of us who rode won prizes. One of the highlights was that Joelle got 2nd place in the Hurry Scurry (which is a course with 3 jumps). Little Oreo (her horse) jumped beautifully. When we got Oreo a few months ago, she was terrible at jumping - her back feet would bang the jumps, she'd stumble over, the jump would be all jumbled up afterward. It was ugly. But Joelle just kept practicing with Oreo, giving her a chance to figure out how to do it right. So, here at home, they'd canter around the arena and jump and jump and jump, until Oreo got good at it. And we didn't get mad at Oreo for not doing well at first, we just kept giving her chances to practice and encouraging her for each improvement.

I think God's like that with us. We all have things we're not so good at - maybe considering others first, or trusting Him in difficult circumstances, or finding peace in chaos (that's a tough one for me!), or fighting fear in certain specific areas of life. And I've noticed that our response is too often to beat ourselves up about that - feel down for not having enough faith or for not flying through a situation perfectly or not being as good as someone else going through a similar thing. And we may even think that God's upset with us too, thinking "why can't she just get it?!" But I think God's a lot more like Joelle - just giving us opportunities to practice, grow, and improve until we can jump smoothly. He doesn't expect us to be able to clear every jump the first time. He just gives us chances to get a little better, and little faster, a little smoother, until we've mastered the things that we once weren't so good at.

So, that's what I think God is saying to me lately, and maybe to you too. He's not scolding us for our stumbling, He's saying, "You'll get it, let's try it again. I'm giving you another chance, and another, and another, so you can get a little better each time." And perhaps, in time, we'll be flying over the jumps with our feet not even touching too.