One Big Step

 

(from homedepot .com)

Have you seen those baskets designed to be placed at the top or bottom of your stairs? They’re pretty clever and helpful to those of us who suffer from problems with forgetfulness. I no longer have any of these baskets. But, placed on the bottom step, you drop things in it to “remember to take upstairs when you make the trip…” And placed at the top step to easily take the contents downstairs. In theory, it should work. Unless, like me, you forget to grab the basket – SITTING THERE IN PLAIN SIGHT – and think of it when you’re already upstairs without the items you meant to bring up with you.

How often do we find ourselves lying in our bed at night, thinking [always thinking] of the concerns of the day? The very same things we knew we should turn over to God but didn’t. Maybe we started to, we “put them in the basket” but didn’t get around to taking the basket upstairs and handing it over to God. Maybe we didn’t even get around to dropping them in the basket! Perhaps we simply stuffed them in the pocket of our mind thinking we’d drop them in the basket the next time we passed by.

(from Amazon .com)

And there we are, lying there in bed when the rest of the house is quiet, and our mind is outrageously noisy.

Remembering to take my books upstairs or to bring my teacup from last night down the stairs is one thing. But taking the troubles of the day, or even worse, the troubles of tomorrow to bed with me can bring no good. They cause my mattress to feel lumpy and my pillow to look flat and the room temperature to seem too hot or too cold. Trouble begets trouble.

Tossing and turning as the troubles roll over in my mind never brings solutions. Surely if it did, I’d forget that solution before my first dream was over.

There is a perfect place for those troubles, in the safe keeping of our Lord. Yet we either forget to drop them there, or we put off doing so. We somehow instantly get busier and other concerns get in our way and we don’t notice until bedtime.

Sometimes, we’re even hesitant to leave them there because secretly, we’re afraid He won’t do anything constructive with them. In that case, it’s simply that we don’t trust Him.

Admitting that can be hard. We WANT to trust Him. We know that He’s trustworthy. Yet we hold back. Giving these troubles or burdens to God immediately will go a long way in helping us to sleep better every night.

(from Amazon .com)

We have stepdaughters, stepfathers, and step stools, so maybe it’s time to grab a step-basket, in our minds if nowhere else.

Then, of course, remember to use it and use it quickly!

The more quickly we give our troubles to God, the more likely we’ll see what He does with them, which will help us to trust Him better with each next burden.

Building trust is key.

When we give our trust too freely, too quickly, we’re often disappointed and lose that trust. Watching what someone does with the things we entrust to them, whether secrets or possessions, we learn whether we can truly trust them or not.

Your step-basket may look more like a journal. If you’re like me, you have more notebooks and journals than you’ll admit to, and the one you need is never handy. So, I’ve begun taking notes on the notepad app on my phone. Try it!

Write down your troubles the moment they come to mind and hand them over to God quickly, where they can be dealt with best! If you’re “too busy” which, let’s face it, we all are from time to time, keep that journal on your bedstand. Better to give it to God quickly but later is better than never. Eventually you can read back over that journal and see all the wonderful things God did with your “problems”.

(from Pinterest .com)

Do you have a story for me about giving something to God quickly vs not giving it to Him at all?