There are some moments when life feels so overwhelming, when there’s so much to do and it’s hard to keep up, and you feel like either retreating to get a breather, or just closing your ears and letting out a nice fresh-from-the-belly scream.

Such times are when we are quite vulnerable to “falling” in our walk with God. In recent weeks, as my younger son has learnt to walk, I’ve noticed something interesting. When he is walking towards me and looking up to me, he falls far less than when he is looking around him, or on the floor. When he looks around him, he tends to fall quite often. In fact, in his early days of walking, my 3-going-to-4 year old son, D, noticing how often he fell, asked him “Why are you falling J, are you London bridge?” Oh dear! :-).

In this past week though, which has been quite a week for me, I have seen quite a similar scenario play out in my life. In a sense, I felt like I shifted my focus from God to so many things around me that needed sorting out. This led to me feeling so overwhelmed, and like in the story of Peter walking on water in Matthew 14:22-33, I felt like I was sinking in a sea of anxiety, and I barely even made out any time for devotion with God. Incidentally, I was supposed to write this blog post last weekend, but didn’t really get round to doing so till now. The more I think about how this week has gone, the more I realise how important what we focus on is (and how I really should have written this post since!).

Thank God for insight though, and for the lessons we can learn even from the little incidents that happen in our daily lives. I decided to switch my focus back to what it should have been all along and today, I woke up with this verse in my head: “‎Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). And the thought of this cartoon which I first saw years ago:

I’m learning that focusing on God means, among other things, trusting Him, having faith in Him and knowing that He is more than enough for us. It means putting Him first, and prioritising him, rather than prioritising our problems and making them appear bigger than they are. It also means trusting that His plans are always better! If God loves me (and I know he does), then why should I worry that he won’t sort out these things that I worry so much about? It also does mean that while things may not always go the way I had planned or visualised them in my head, God always ALWAYS has a better plan.

Isn’t it weird how we like to be in control, when we have very limited knowledge, instead of surrendering and trusting God, who knows EVERYTHING? It’s like going into a restaurant and looking through the menu, but it is a foreign language. So we can do either of the following: 1) Make a choice based on the limited knowledge we have of that language (or how nice the words sound :-)), and end up ordering something that may have sounded nice and posh, but we really can’t stomach. 2) Trust an expert to make that choice for us. An expert who not only knows the language and the meals on the menu very well, but also knows every little detail about us… the foods we love, the ones we don’t quite love, the foods we are absolutely going to love if we try, and the foods which are good for us.

Personally, I think going with option two makes more sense, and I do hope I will remember this next time!

However, falling doesn’t mean it’s over. The beauty of falling is that so long as we get up again and keep trying, there is still hope for us. As Proverbs 24:16 says, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up”. And sometimes, it is part of the learning-to-trust-God process. Just like it is part of the learning-to-walk process for my son. However, that being said, I don’t want to be a “London bridge!” 🙂

On a side note, with all the craziness of my week, there is always the silver lining. So today, while I was trying to sort out a few things, and probably looking a bit stressed, ‎my son D said “Mummy, do you need a cuddle?” Of course I said yes, and he proceeded to give me a sweet hug. Then he went on to say “Are you a bit tired? Why don’t you lie down here (pointing at the sofa) and rest?” And that, my friends, was my heart-in-a-puddle-on-the-floor moment for the week. I think I’ll soon take him up on his offer, but just before I do, I just have to say thank you God for sending a little child to remind me that I am loved and cared for. My prayer for you today is that you encounter one (or more!) of such reminders of God’s love for you, and that it helps you trust Him and re-focus on Him. Jesus is far more interesting and beautiful than winds and storms anyway, so why focus on the latter when we have the former!

Photo Credit: A Joyful ‘toon by Mike Waters (www.joyfultoons.com)