"The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped:
therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth;
and with my song will I praise Him."
- Psalms 28:7

Some things never change.

That's what I was thinking after I saw a picture of myself play out in the life of my 15 month old, Jacob.

We had arrived early at church last night because my wife was attending a ladies Bible study.  So, Jacob and I had about 90 minutes to spend.

And, being at church, it was appropriate that we spent it learning something from the Lord.

Jacob and I walked all over the darkened sanctuary.  Well, it was more me chasing Jacob all over the darkened sanctuary, but you get the idea. :o)

Now, there are several different platforms in the church near the pulpit and the choir loft.  And Jacob has recently discovered climbing.   And he likes it.   So, you can imagine where he headed.

The first platform has a step up that is just a bit too big for Jacob to do on his own.  So, his little hand reached up for mine and I helped him up the step.  Then, he arrived at the choir platform, which has a much smaller step up.  Do you think he reached for my hand?  Nope.  He practically jumped up that small step and went on his way.

A little while later, we repeated the cycle.  Only this time when he arrived at the second, much smaller step, he went down.  He stumbled on his own and fell.  He was overconfident because it seemed like a task he could handle on his own -- and he, in fact, had previously been successful at it.  But, this time was different.  Without his father holding his hand, he stumbled.

Now, here's where I figure some things never change.  I do the same thing myself.  And you do too.

We go through life and we come to a huge step.  Maybe it's an illness.  Perhaps it's a financial burden.  It could be a bad relationship, a career conflict or any of a thousand things that are out of our league.  And what do we do?  We reach for our Father's hand.  And well we should.

But later, we come to those smaller steps.  You know, those things that we think we can handle on our own.  And we don't even bother asking for God's help.  We practically jump up that small step.  Sometimes we make it without any problems at all.  But, other times we fall.

And we fall because of one reason and one reason alone:  we neglected the hand of the Father in our lives and decided to do things in our own strength.

The point I want to make is this:  God isn't JUST interested in the BIG things in your life, He is interested in ALL parts of your life.  He doesn't want you to involve Him only in the things you can't handle on your own, He wants you to involve Him in every single thing that goes on in your daily life.

God desires to be your strength, not merely in the big decisions and the big obstacles and the big tasks you face each day, but also in the small chunks that seem easy to handle, but oftentimes aren't.

I guess the bottom line is fairly simple...

...He wants to hold your hand every step of the way.