"Mommy, will you put my udder sock on?"
There Kaleb was, standing perfectly still in front of me with one sock on and the other sock missing. He seemed to be waiting for something. So, my eyes quickly scanned over his tiny frame and darted back and forth between both his hands, but I didn't see the mysteriously absent sock.
"Well, where's your sock?" I asked him.
"I don't know," he said, still gazing at me. "Can you get my udder sock and put it on me Mommy?" Not only did he want assistance with putting the sock on, but Kaleb also wanted me to go and look for it too.
But, instead of following through on my first inclination, which was to spring into action and launch my own search and rescue mission for the missing sock, I did something different. I said to Kaleb, "Mommy doesn't know where your sock is baby, so you have to go and find it for me." Initially, this seemed to confuse Kaleb. He couldn't quite figure out how his "omniscient" mother didn't immediately know the location of his sweat sock, or at the very least, why his "chief servant" didn't go and search it out on his behalf.
"You're a big boy, right?" I asked him.
"Yet (Yes)," he said.
"OK, well, hurry... be a big boy and go and find the sock for Mommy." Immediately, Kaleb bolted out of the room and went directly to where the sock was, returned to me and then, to top it all off, he put his sock on his own foot.
He never needed me in the first place. He was 100% capable of accomplishing the task he was trying to deputize me to carry out. Still, Kaleb would have gladly sat back and allowed me to perform a job he was well able to complete on his own, had I not challenged him do it himself.
Aren't we like that sometimes too?
We get so comfortable being dependent in areas where we're equipped to be independent. It's not always that we don't know what to do, or how to do something--though there are those times when we don't. But quite often, it's just a matter of being attached to the comfort of having someone else do it for us. In truth, we like the convenience of not being inconvenienced in any way.
That's why, every once in a while, the Lord has to remove our safety net to encourage us to stand on our own two feet. He knows we already have the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities to accomplish certain tasks and fulfill specific goals. We've already got the "how" and the "what" down pat... we just need a little extra encouragement to do what we're 100% capable of doing.
Just as I knew Kaleb needed to be challenged to take responsibility, the Lord knows that His children need the same thing.
If He never challenged us, our growth would be stagnated and God loves us too much to make us comfortable at the expense of our destiny. Our Heavenly Father knows that comfort is the enemy of progress, so if you're uncomfortable in a position God has placed you in today, that means you're growing, that's all.
I admonish you to dig deep and tap into the power God has already infused you with. Exercise those gifts and carry out His will. What do you have to worry about? After all, the Omnipotent, All Powerful One, lives down on the inside of you... "Greater is he that is in you..." (1 John 4:4b)
As always, thanks for reading, and until next time... may you be empowered to prosper!
Dianna Hobbs
