Walking In Mommy’s and Daddy’s Shoes

I was watching TV the other day when an advertisement came on showing little children walking in their parents’ shoes.  There was a little girl with beads around her neck, dangling to the floor, her feet inside her mother’s high heels.  Then, a little boy comes into view wearing his father’s boots, the tops reaching him, mid-thigh.  Their faces were all smiles as they scuffled forward in their parents’ shoes.  What fun!

This act reveals something very important — love and trust.  If these children didn’t love their parents, they wouldn’t have desired to wear their shoes; if they didn’t trust their parents, they wouldn’t have dared put them on for fear of making them angry for having done so.  They could dare to imitate only because of love and trust shared between them.

It’s the same with our heavenly Father, too.  We desire to be like Him when we love and trust Him.  Here, then, comes the question:  How do we learn to trust God when we’re so afraid?  If we don’t trust Him, we can never hope to be like Him.  Does He really even love us, no matter what?  Fears and doubts can smother a weak trust.  What can we do?

Let’s think back to the above little children wearing their parents’ shoes.  How did they come to easily love and trust them?  It can only be — through watching what they do, spending time with them,  and paying attention to what they say.  It’s no different with our heavenly Father.  When we observe the world He has made, and the works He does in another person’s life, we see His love, and our trust grows.  When we spend time with Him, meditating on the loveliness of His instruction to us, and take time, too, to listen to Him speak into our hearts, we know His love, and our trust grows.   Observing, spending time together, and listening — those are key elements in any relationship on which to build love and trust.

As we learn to build upon the love of our Father, trusting His ways with us, then we come to understand the wonderful plan He has designed, individually for each of us.  May you be blessed as you build your love and trust in your Father.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster. to give you a future and a hope.  In those days, when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.'”  Jeremiah 29:11-13