You're not gonna lose weight by just thinking about it.
Wouldn't that be nice, though?
I know you're not gonna run that marathon by just going, boy, those marathon runners on tv. That looks like. Looks like fun. I think I'll do that.
I'm gonna sign up and just show up, right?
Yeah, that would be a bad day. Well, hello again, and welcome to the Trim the Wick podcast. I'm, Dan, and Becky's not here this week because we are not in the studio, but we are so glad to bring back one of our favorite, episodes from
when we were doing seeing God in the everyday. And this is a, great episode because we talk about a time when we had friends that came over to our house and brought their little child, and for a couple days, we got to just spend time with that child, watching them maneuver through our house, which was not, kid friendly at the time. And, because we hadn't had kids in a long time, but watching this child really kind of sparked something in us.
and we had this conversation about determination and having that determination of a child, to do what God's called you to do. So we're going to turn the clock back a little bit and hope you enjoy this podcast about determination. It was so awesome because she had.
A baby, a little ten month old.
It was so cool because, we haven't had a baby in the house in 15, years. literally, we have not had a baby, really, in the house since 15 years. And it was so cool to watch her just that. That simple thing of just learning what's around her, learning what's going. You know, what. What are those noises? The dogs barking? What are the different noises in this house? What are the different things that she's seeing? But one of the coolest things for me was watching her
try to stand. Well, she actually was standing very well.
She was doing squats.
Yeah.
We decided that the exercise program of the year was gonna be following her around and just copying everything she does.
Yeah. Cause, I mean, the girl could stand. That was not a problem. She could stand, but she would pull up on stuff, and you would see the determination, and she was like, I'm gonna reach for the glass table. I'm gonna reach for the cup. And she would just kind of. And she couldn't move really well yet. I mean, she could kind of scoot along a little bit.
Yeah. A little bit of cruising along the edges of the furniture, but not. Yeah, but she was not real solid yet.
There was no, like, taking off and leaping and going for it. But to see the determination, because she did it over and over and over. And they were here for just a couple days. But I bet you she tried to, I'm gonna just use the glass table as an example.
That was her favorite temptation, wasn't it?
She tried to get to the cups on the glass table for, you know, hours, you know, and everything. She just keep reaching for it. She'd keep scooting, she'd try to go. And it just made me, it made me think about some things and especially, you know, seeing a baby and now that I'm 50.
You know. Yeah, you're ancient.
you know, it made me think about these things of, that God has placed stuff in us. He's. Placed desires, he's placed thoughts, he's placed these things in us. Just like she had this thought, this desire, you know, she had this God given ability to stand and to want something. And, you know, we have those same things. It was interesting to just watch her continually strive over and over and over. And she would miss and sit down, you know. Thank goodness she had the
diaper. She would down on the floor, but she just kept trying.
She was so resilient about it. She'd just get right back up. Yeah.
And I wonder so many times how we get in that situation where there's something we're striving for, something we're going after something we're trying to get, and we struggle, we try and then we flump and we give up. And I wonder how many times we miss out what God has for us. I wonder how many times we miss out a joy or a happiness or, a learning experience because we just quit after the first or second try, or we don't even try because it's too difficult.
and to pull the illustration a little bit farther, how many times do we miss out something that God designed us for? This is a little one. She's designed to walk. She's designed, she's got the bone structure, she's got the muscles, she's got the, you know, the want to move. She was designed to walk and run eventually. And, you know, mom and dad, I'm sure to, yeah, to climb too. But we just won't talk about that right now in case y'all are listening. But she was designed to do all these things.
God gave her all the raw materials.
Right.
You know, but she's got to do that hard stuff to develop them. She's got to do her squats to build up those little muscles and she's got to reach and she's got to try again.
Yeah. And it's work.
It is.
And you could see, I mean, you could. It was funny. I made the joke that I said, she's going to be a professional, tennis player, because she would grunt every time she went as she was going around and stuff because she was trying so hard. She really wanted that table, you know, she really wanted to walk. She really wanted to. And, But it was just, it was
so neat. And we talk about this is, how many times has God opened doors for us and, you know, looking back at our past, how many times has God opened doors for us and we were too afraid to go through, right. Or we only gave it half the effort. You know, I think that is one of the bigger problems. I think that is probably something that hinders christians more. Is that okay? We see the opportunity and we just.
Go, ah, I tried once and I fell.
Yeah. Or I'm not gonna give it my all, you know, cuz, cuz if I fail and then I'll end up landing on my butt.
Right.
You know, I'll end up flumping on my butt, discouraging. And, you know, and if I don't have a diaper on, that's gonna hurt a little bit.
Right.
But that's the thing, is that with the failure she was learning, right? With the failure she was learning. Oh, wait a second. I can't just reach without moving my foot. So if I, if I move my foot, then I reach, right, I can reach farther and I have a little more balance. And you saw that was the next step that she was doing as the weekend progressed.
Right.
Is that you actually saw her not just reach over and fall down, but you saw her start to turn her hips.
Mm
And start to turn. And we actually saw her a couple times, actually put that foot out.
Yeah, she did that pivot move a couple of times.
She didn't get there. She didn't get there. she was so close, but she didn't get there. But she like, made that turn and she put that foot there and then she thump. She slumped down. But you saw in her failure how she was processing, how she was learning, how she was now going, okay, I need to change this a little bit.
Right, guys?
It's the same way with us. This is the training process. Just because we're not ten months old, we're older and wiser doesn't mean we don't go through the same processes.
Right.
And we do we still have to fail. Fail. Oh, we learned something different. Okay. We changed. This fail. We changed.
We need to discipline ourselves to continue.
Yeah. And it's that thing of, you know, beating your body, you know, it's that thing of, you know, once you work out, once you feel horrible, you know, you work out the second time, you feel horrible. But in different parts of your body, you work out a third time. well, by the fourth or fifth time, you're now starting to get it, your body's starting to adapt. You're now making changes. You know,
you're not. You're not holding things wrong. You're now probably holding things a little different because you have better knowledge, and that's so much of what life is, right? That little idea of watching this ten month old reach and try to grab at a table encompasses so much of what we live and just our day to day. And what I believe what we should be doing in our day to day is that understanding what God has called us to do and go for it, right.
And accept the fact that it's. Yeah, he created us to do these things, but it's not just gonna be this, you know, there you go. You can do it now, because I created you to do this. There's effort involved and there's learning involved, and there's training involved, and it's great to have, you know, this little one had her mama here to help
her and coach her. And we have those people in our lives that are helping us and coaching us, and the Holy Spirit helps us and coaches us, and yet we're the ones that have to do the thing.
Right.
We're the ones that have to absorb those lessons and then adjust to them. We're the ones that have to walk in the truths that we've discovered.
Right? Yeah. Because it wouldn't have done, it wouldn't have done her any good if mama would have just walked her over there like, her feet.
She learns nothing. Right?
She wouldn't learn anything. She would learn. If I just sit here and wine enough, mom's gonna just move me over there. So I'm. What I've been taught now is to whine, not to actually move over by myself. You know, it's the wrong way. It's a different lesson.
I learned something, just not something good, you know?
But, yeah, exactly that. You know, we've. We've got to do it right. You've got to step out and, you know, as an encouragement, we need to take that and go. We need to do the things necessary to fulfill what God's calling is in our life.
Right.
You know, you've got to do it. You know, you're not going to lose weight by just thinking about it.
Wouldn't that be nice, though?
You're not going to run that marathon m by just going, boy, those marathon runners on tv. That looks like. Looks like fun. I think I'll do that.
I'm going to sign up and just show up, right?
Yeah, that'd be a bad day. But, well, hon, don't you have a. You have a scripture that we kind of. We're hitting on and we want to talk about law school.
We are. We've kind of been dancing around all of some of the same themes. You know, sometimes when you see these life lessons, you want to double check them and make sure that it's not just man's philosophy. Cause a lot of times, you know, we can think some things that sound really good, but when you start pulling them apart and comparing them to what the scripture says that God thinks on the subject, it falls short.
Right?
So, as we were talking about this and going, wow, we're seeing this. And I. Isn't this awesome? We want you guys to. This is part of the seeing God in the everyday. We're not just looking for enlightening philosophies.
Right.
We're looking for scriptural truth.
Right.
That we can walk out. because if it's not scriptural truth, it's gonna fall short somewhere and fail you.
because to build on top of that, again, we don't want to have man's philosophy.
Right.
You know, the last thing we do is, when we go, is we're trying to interject our ideas how it should be. We want to make sure that we're always bouncing stuff back off scripture.
Right. So that we can come into agreement with that.
Exactly. And it's that thing of understanding God's character, also of who he is. Because then you can start seeing, him weave through all of this. Yeah. Because when you start focusing on what you believe and what you think, that's when you're going to go.
Sometimes our observations go amiss.
We can have good intentions that lead to bad places.
We can. So, as we were talking through this, we were like, we want to double check and make sure that the scripture backs this, that what we're seeing is what we're really seeing. And that what we're seeing is what we're seeing in context. And, over in one corinthians, chapter nine, the scripture very clearly addresses what we've been talking about today. It says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that
you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. We saw self control in this little one. they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we am imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one, just beating the air. But I discipline my body, and I keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I
myself should be disqualified. And the context here is where Paul the apostle is speaking to, the way he conducts himself as he ministers among the churches, and what he walks out in his day to day. And it's this the same example that we've been talking about that, you know, he didn't just do it aimlessly. He didn't just go, well, God gifted me to do this thing, so patoing, I can do this thing, right. He disciplined himself,
he disciplined his body, he disciplined his thoughts. Even as an athlete, even as a little baby, learning, to walk disciplines herself to keep getting back up, disciplines herself to keep exercising and strengthening those muscles disciplines herself to learn every time she falls down, you know?
Yeah. And I love when Paul's saying, I don't just run aimlessly.
Right.
You know, I don't just go in any direction or I don't just beat the air.
Right. There's a goal and a purpose. Yeah.
There's a focus. There's a. If you want something, you need to go for that, and you need to do the things necessary to reach that, you know, if God's placing something on your heart, you need to go for that focus on something. If you're going to go for something.
If you're going to, if God's put something in you that you want to grow up into and you have an inkling of what that is, right.
You know, you've got to focus on the right things.
Right.
And you've got to stay, true to the things that are going to lead you in the right direction. And, you know, like going back to our little girl here, you know, she wanted to walk. She wanted to reach and grab that table, that cup, whatever was on that table, she wanted, right. And what she did is she positioned herself so that she could make a move for that, right. And it was so neat to watch her crawl over, and she didn't just kind of crawl over to the thing, you know, crawl over
to it. She would crawl, nearby, you know, and then she would stand up on the ottoman or the chair because she wanted to reach out for it. She didn't just want to crawl it. So she positioned herself. She did different things. It was just, it was so neat to watch over the few days. It really was. It made me, you know, realize it's like, oh, I need to do a better, if I'm gonna do this, I need to do a better job preparing myself for this.
Right.
But it goes right along with what Paul was saying. We're trying to win the prize.
Right?
We're running the race to win. We need to position ourselves in that situation and do things, clear some things out.
Right.
Do some things that are going to put us, in the right position to reach our goals.
Right. And it's a broader self discipline. You know, she did, she self disciplined herself and is going to have to continue self disciplining in the exercise, the working out part, she's gonna have to discipline, in the positioning and the learning adaptation part. But she also, we watched very clear examples of, where she's having to discipline herself in resting to restore strength when she needs to. Man, she didn't wanna do that. Sometimes she was like, no, I am not gonna take a
nap. But the more exhausted she became, if she continued to try, she couldn't get up as easily. She tipped over faster, y'all. When we don't rest and restore and get in the word and just sit on the father's lap and be renewed, we run out of strength to keep running too.
Right.
You know, there was so much in just watching a little one.
You know, that whole thing of rest, the thing that it was showing me is that when she was getting tired, is that she was getting more and more upset.
Yeah. The frustration overwhelmed her. Yeah.
And it's the same thing with us. You know, I. I am not a car mechanic.
No, you're not. He's really not, y'all.
two years ago, we had a van, and it was a simple thing. I was gonna change something. And while I had the engine apart and was doing what I was doing, I was like, I'm going to change the spark plugs. Simple thing. Well, I broke one of the spark plugs in the head of the engine, which. That's where you screw the spark plug in. Well, there was no way to get it out. The ceramic was down inside the thing. I couldn't get it out. It sat there for a month.
And I would try day after day after day after day to get this thing out, and I would be out there in the dark, swatting mosquitoes, just angry. And I remember you telling me, hon, just leave it for tomorrow. And I'm like, it's already been two weeks.
You were grumpy.
And I was so irritated and so angry at this engine, and I wasn't resting on it. I was thinking about it always because our car was broken. We were down to one car and we needed two. And it was just. It was adding stress. And I get worked up talking about it. But it shows the importance of rest, right? Because God does have things for us. He has things he's called us to do.
And if we're going to start looking at things, understanding that we're going to try and fail, try and fail, going to keep trying, going to keep, gonna keep training, gonna keep working, gonna keep doing this, is that we've got a rest in between there. You know, an athlete will tell you one of the most important things that they do is rest.
Right?
We saw it with Jesus. One of the most important things Jesus would do would be to get away from everyone and rest. You know, we don't do that. We are really bad at that. And, you know, that is something that as we're getting older, we're actually understanding more because you just can't keep going. Your body starts telling you you need to slow down, but it's the same thing in your twenties and in your thirties and even in your teens, there's times when your body says
enough, you need to cut it back a little bit. You need to slow down.
And that ties back to that scripture that says that, you know, every athlete exercises self control in all things.
Yep.
And I discipline my body and keep it under control so that after preaching to others, I don't get disqualified. If we're out there teaching and showing people what it looks like to become and accomplish the things that God has put in us, only to just completely lose it because we've not disciplined ourselves in rest. We've not disciplined ourself in spending time with the father
to recharge. You know, if we just keep doing the striving part without doing the renewing part, you know, we have to exercise control in all things.
Yeah, yeah. And it's rest. It's in what we're studying, what we're learning, what we're going for, all of those things. It's all important.
Right.
And it balances out. And I, you know, I'd love to tell you that the end of the story was, is that she got the.
Table and she actually did, she did one time. She got to the table one time.
But it was because we let our guard down for a second and she.
Actually, but she, she did a good bit of adaptation too. She realized there was one area that was uncovered and she went around back behind the chair and got to it.
Now, she didn't walk to it, but she cried.
No, she crawled back.
She did finally actually get to the table. We just laughed. We thought was funny. Yeah, that was just, you know, it's so simple sometimes just to watch things and observe things and ask the question, what is God trying to show me in this? I think that's one of the biggest things that over the last two years, three years that this has kind of come about is that especially for you and I, hun, we, we've really just kind of gone, God, what are you showing us in this?
And whether it's a hard time, where it's an easy time, whether it's something fun, whether it's something interesting. God, what are you trying to show me in this? Because we do believe that God's present, that God teaches us that God is in the invisible things as you know, it says in romans. But he's just, he's willing to show you and to teach you and talk to you and pour things out to you as long as you're looking for.
It, you know, he's not hiding.
No. It was interesting, I said something the other day, just in jest, you know, I said, you know, God smack us upside to head. And the individual turned to me and she said, oh, don't ever say that. That's a false doctrine. And I was like, okay. She goes, God won't smack you upside the head. He's a loving God. He's going to show things to you, he's going to reveal things to you, he's going to guide you and direct you. And you know, I never stopped to think about it, but that is true. God doesn't
smack us upside the head. He does guide us and direct us and show things.
And he's a good shepherd.
Reveal things to us. He might have to jerk us back from the edge, but he doesn't smack us around. So that's a good thing to put in your cap. Also, we want to encourage you as you're listening to these and watching these. The idea is to spur in you the search for where God's moving. Where do you see him in your everyday? We saw him through the actions of a child.
Right?
I mean it was, and it was right there. It was so easy to make the connection between who God is and what he does with us and watching what he's doing with this little girl.
Right?
And that's what we want to do, is we want to encourage you guys with that.