Growing up in the high desert, I played a game with a little risk. Not too risky because I was a chicken. Scared about most of life.
The game? Flipping over rocks of all shapes and sizes to see what would be under it. Bugs? A lizard? We’d been warned a million and a half times to watch for scorpions and rattle snakes. Would this rock be the one hiding something dangerous?
Wondering what might jump out at me was the biggest thrill! And nothing bad ever pounced out from under the rock. I never saw a scorpion or a rattle snake. Thank goodness!
As a child and young adult, my prayer life was much like checking under a rock and waiting to see if something bad would happen. I’d fling a prayer heaven-ward and then hope that punishment for something bad I had done would not be the response from heaven.
Every time. Pray and then duck, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or a rock to fall. Or a snake to bite. You get the idea.
It’s taken years to realize that a loving God is not going to rain down snakes on my head (honestly, that’s a nightmare that makes me shiver to think about, if you know me at all, you know I can’t even look at pictures of snakes).
When you grow up with turmoil, you learn that life is messy, and you get nervous if things are calm for long.
We can let our anxieties plague us and keep us standing still, hyperventilating. Or we can choose to look into God’s word and camp out on His promises for us. His many, many promises. To love us, protect us, profit us, to give us a hope and a future.
It all boils down to choice. We can choose to leave the rocks unturned and open our bibles to see what He has to say to us.
Isn’t it amazing how quickly He can calm our hearts with a scripture?
The enemy’s job is to distract us. Our job is to stand firm and not allow it.
Today, I challenge you to get out your bible and search the scriptures for promises for your life. Underline them, speak them, write them out, pray them over your life. Do something to get yourself back on track.
And stop looking under the rocks or waiting for a punishment.
Because He Loves YOU. Just as you are.
Blessings,
PS – That’s my baby girl 8 years ago in the picture. Here we were telling her not to EAT the rocks!
Oh my, yes. In my house, if things were calm too long, it meant there was an impending explosion. I still deal with the effects of living that way. Always, always waiting for the other shoe to drop…
I catch myself doing it too!