A lesson I learned by walking with my daughter
I went for a walk with my daughter recently through our
neighborhood and down to the park. At the time of writing this she is almost 16
months old. She’s still learning to balance as she tends to fall down quite a
bit, sometimes it’s cute and funny and other times I need to pick her up and
let her cry into my shoulder (this may be TMI, but I’m getting quite a bit of
snot on my clothes lately). During our walk I observed some things about my
daughter, and I assume most kids are the same way. She moves quite slow
compared to my long legs, but besides our obvious size difference her slowness
comes from stopping every three feet. At this point she doesn’t even understand
"going to the park", I know she’s going to love it when we get there,
but she’s in her own little world. The destination isn’t even something that
crosses her mind, the walk with daddy and all of the things she can pick up are
an adventure in and of itself. A leaf, a rock, and even a weed becomes her new
found treasure.
Most of the time I let her walk by herself, gently directing
her away from potential danger or from playing in someone’s yard. Sometimes I
hold her hand, keeping her close by with the freedom to walk on her own. And
part of the time I carry her. The walk is really all about her as I delight in
my daughter. I am fascinated by her being fascinated by the littlest and
seemingly valueless things. I’ve walked this neighborhood many times and never
once have I cared about the leaf, rock, weed, or even the random pretty flower.
However as a dad, and fairly new to this job description at that, I find myself
caring about the things that she cares about. I even bent down a few times to
pick leaves and twigs up and hand them to her.
The argument could be made that there are more important things in life
than a leaf or a weed, but not right now. In this moment it’s not as much about
the things she finds along the sidewalk, for me it’s about her heart, her
desires, making her happy.
I can't help but draw comparisons and parallels from this
example to our walk with God. I think the biggest take away for me is that God
cares about what I care about. He obviously sees the big picture and the
destination that he's leading me to, but He's a good father and He enjoys the
journey with me even more than I do. The Bible says this in Psalms 37:4 “Delight
yourself in The Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Then in Psalm
145:16-19 “You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord
is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The Lord is
near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the
desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. I
love James 1:17 Where it says, "Every good and perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change
like shifting shadows." Matthew
and Luke tell us that evil fathers know how to give good gifts to their
children so how much more does our father in heaven give good gifts to us.
The pendulum can swing to some unhealthy extremes, but it’s
good for us to know that God really does care about what we care about. This
includes the things that make me happy and the things that concern me. We all
agree that nothing is too big for God, but it’s also comforting to know that
nothing is too small for him either. He actually put desires in us, he gave us
emotions, and he loves the journey. As I continue to be fascinated by the
things that fascinate my daughter I will let it be a gentle reminder that God
thinks about me in the same way.
Good thoughts man! The journey is way more interesting than the destination! Thanks for sharing.
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