Learning To Walk With Daddy

There comes a time when our children have to go from crawling to walking. These are exciting times as a parent. What a classic picture that most parents have the chance to snap! This is our daughter Lilly. Daddy is teaching her how to use her new mode of transportation. We see her clinging to daddy's fingers for balance as she navigates her terrain in a new way.
 
This process starts by the child learning how to crawl. Lilly started by rolling all over the place. She slowly  learned to crawl, but once she figured it out she was on the move! Next, we taught her to stand and balance herself. I remember getting excited at  just a couple of seconds of balance. Then, she started scaling the couch and other furniture with an adventuresome look in her eye to do what her older brother was so good at... walking! So daddy and mommy started the process in the picture and Lilly began learning to walk while holding tightly to daddy's fingers.

Then came the big day! With daddy and mommy's tutelage, Lilly took her first independent steps. As parents, it is one of the most memorable moments ever! In our home, the camera stayed on the kitchen table for weeks awaiting this moment. Lilly had done enough watching, it was time to do! The first steps were wobbly. In the process she had taken some hard falls, but in just a couple of days she was a natural. Mommy would sit on one end of the room and daddy on the other while Lilly traveled (however imperfectly) back and forth until she tuckered out.

Now that she is on the move in a new way, she has begun to get that adventuresome look in her eye again. No... she doesn't want to fly! But she does want to go... and go fast! She is learning the hard way to slow down and practice what daddy and mommy has shown her. Yet, after every fall she gets back up and tries again. Now that will preach!

Children are sponges, our little learners! Jesus tells us to come unto Him as little children. We have a Lord, Savior, and Life that raises us up from babes in Christ to mature Christ-ones. For some of us the process starts by rolling on the floor and for some we remain there for a long time. Yet, for those adventuresome  types, we look to PaPa to teach us how to do what seems so impossible. Lovingly, He begins the process of teaching us how we ought to "walk".

If you are anything like me, after a few good steps you might think you can do it, that you can go faster. Tragically we learn by experience to slow down. The most important part is that when we fall we realize that Daddy is there to pick us back up to try again. In His loving grace we get up with the confidence that Daddy will always be there with each step we take.

Now, I know that illustrations are not always perfect theological pictures. For example, God does not want us walking independently from Him. It's the process of learning to walk with Him and by His instruction that  really matters here. We will be teaching our children "how to walk" by the Father's leading the rest of our lives. They will want to rush, we will want them to slow down. They will fall and we will be there to pick them up. The same is true in our daily walk with Christ.

Be blessed friends and love your little ones!

Colossians 2:6-7

"6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."