Keep Building....

One of the best parts of my weeks are the days I get to spend with a spunky little toddler whom we'll just call Skye =) She is a joy beyond words and it is an honor and blessing to be able to watch her grow and learn and explore the world around us!  As I am sure some of you will probably attest to, it is often the moments of learning and play with this precious child, that the Lord uses to speak truth to my heart.

One such moment occured during a busy block building session. She loves to build towers and houses as tall as possible and, in the past weeks, I’ve noticed that the building process has become more and more tedious and exact.  She moves with purpose from the structure we are working on to whatever block she thinks would fit best next.  Her precious little toddler hands grab it as carefully as if it was fine china and then place the block wherever she wants it with the same delicate precision I imagine they used when building the Sears tower.  Ultimately though, the tower grows a block too tall. It wavers for a second and she pauses… We both wait to see if this is the moment it will fall or not.  It usually is…

But. Little Skye is not wavered.  She clears the building space and starts again.  Building, building, building….

As I watched and helped (when I was told to =)  ) I could feel as if the Lord was sitting next to me saying, “Did you see that? Notice what just happened there?  She wasn’t thrown when the blocks tumbled.  She. Kept. Building.”

She kept building.  She could have allowed the loss of her handiwork to completely derail her but, no.  She moved on and just began again. She kept building.

How often are we completely thrown when something we’ve labored over crumbles?  We’ve poured ourselves into a relationship, a project, a work of ministry or a work of art, or some combination of all of these… We’ve worked and worked. And then – in an instant – it’s all laying at our feet.  In that moment, as we survey the damage, we are at a crossroads.  We could stop and let this moment be the end and forever define us and the whole journey….

OR…

We can take a moment to mourn but then begin to clear the area with intention to KEEP BUILDING.  The Bible is full of stories of people who kept building and pressed on.  Mary found herself young, unmarried, and carrying a holy child.  This is not what she had envisioned but she pressed on and something – or rather someone – glorious came to be as a result. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers but knew that the Lord had something great for him…. so he pressed on.  Daniel found himself facing a deadly den of lions.  Instead of laying down to accept a certain fate, he believed for the Lord’s redemption and he pressed into it.

This past year has been a season where I have been given several opportunities to decide if I am going to "keep building" or just sit in the rubble of what I thought my life was going to be.... A move, a new job, and general new experiences have given me so many chances to start anew and, to be honest, I often found myself disgusted with my attitude.  I would have never wanted to admit out loud that I thought I new better than the Lord how to run my life but , when faced with a moment of crisis - as what I thought my life was going to be crumbled - my actions spoke clearly that that was the case.  Distance and His grace have made this heart of mine grateful for the opportunities to keep building and keep pressing toward the next, and often better, thing that the Lord has for me.  I am grateful that when things crumble, He has a plan and I am grateful that Jesus loves use the littlest saints to teach us =)

 I pray that, no matter the place you are today, that you keep building.  I pray that you press on to the next great thing that our Creator has for you and that, while you may mourn the thing that has crumbled today, that you are able to keep building tomorrow.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

~ Phil. 3:13 – 14 ~

Kristi