Losing Your Monkey

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. (Psalm 23:1 NIV)

On Sunday I helped Shelli with our Summer One Room Schoolhouse Sunday School. We had about a dozen kids from preschool to 6th grade and it was a lot of fun. They will be studying the 23rd Psalm this summer and the topic for that Sunday was "Problems." Shelli began by asking the kids what some of their problems were. Most of the answers were what you'd expect... losing something, a loved one being sick, bullying, etc. But this was Cecelia's problem: "When you are sleeping and you lose your monkey because he falls off the bed and you wake up and you can't find him so you look on the floor and then reach your arm down to get him but you fall off the bed and get a boo-boo and then you cry." Sounds like she's been there on more than one occasion, doesn't it? Being that she often spends the night with me, I can attest to the fact that it happens fairly frequently.

Some of our problems are pretty straight-forward. Losing a job; sick spouse; work bullies. And as Shelli advised the children on Sunday, we can give these problems to God. Not that we never worry about them or don't try to do what we can to fix them, but they are pretty simple to put into words in a prayer and ask for God to help or show us what to do or just comfort us through it.

But some problems are so complicated we don't even know what to ask for. We go through the same routine time after time and always end up hurt, but we don't know where we took the wrong turn. We don't know what to do differently so it doesn't happen again.

The great thing is that we really don't have to explain our problem to God. He knows what it is and nothing is too complicated for him. No matter how messed up our life seems, we can just take it to God and ask him to fix it. Sometimes our problem keeps repeating itself because we don't really want to change. The answer to Cecelia's problem might be to stop sleeping with her monkey... but that's probably not going to happen soon. She's not ready to change.

But when we are truly tired of falling down in the middle of the night and we are ready to open our hearts to real change, we will finally listen to what Godd has been trying to tell us. It might mean we must change careers or move to a new city or learn new eating and exercise habits or go back to school or sell our house.

We can't follow God when we are not willing to take the road he is trying to guide us down. And we can't say that God didn't answer our prayer if we simply didn't accept the answer. Take your probleems to God no matter how complicated they are, but be willing to follow where he leads... even if it means you have to change something.

Father,
You always have our best interests at heart, but we are so slow to give up what is familiar, even if it is hurting us. Help us to let go and let You. Amen.

Joys: a very quiet aand prouctive day at work yesterday; a rainy day to get caught up with housework; children