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Training Wheels – Sarah Stasik
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Training the Trainable

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:5

I removed the training wheels from my son’s bike for the first time. It only took about an hour before he was flying up and down the driveway, but the first forty-five minutes of that hour I spent standing next to the bike, arguing with him. He was adamant that a bike simply would not work with only two wheels. Science and gravity and child-logic were all against it.

The last fifteen minutes were spent climbing—full of doubt—onto the bike. I pushed him around the yard until he was up to speed. A bit later, he made circles around us yelling, “It’s like I have extra legs. Two legs to pedal and two legs I can’t see, holding me up. It’s easy.”

I think about that moment now, years later, and as a mom, how proud I was of his accomplishment. It reminds me of a joy-filled afternoon. But I also think about how the lesson applies to life in general. I worry, fret, and decide things won’t work. Science and reason and adult-logic are against them.

How many times do we pedal furiously through life, sure we are about to topple over? Many people put their feet down every few yards, afraid of falling, and get nowhere. Our fear, our disbelief, and our inability to let go and KNOW we have two legs we can’t see holding us up, keep us from getting to our destination.

Just as the little child must learn the bike will work with only two wheels, we must know there is someone else in charge of our bike ride through life. We may pedal, we may turn the wheel, but our bike is guided by Jesus. If we believe, if we turn our bike over to him, then we too can cry out as we are caught up in the joy of life:

Believe. “It’s EASY!”

Sarah Stasik lives on a crooked mountain in Virginia with her husband and son. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Kid’s Ark, Penned from the Heart, and Standard Publishing’s Program books. Read Sarah’s devotions.

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What’s the Plan? – Sarah Stasik
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And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14

“Okay, Lord, what’s the plan?” I felt led to re-enroll in college, but couldn’t make such a big financial commitment without knowing the plan. What was I going to do with the knowledge gained? How would I pay for it? Where would I find the time?

I’d prayed for a guide map for over a year before I realized, I don’t need to know the plan. I should do what God wants now and let him handle the details. After all, don’t I believe he has one or that he works all things out for the best? Asking for the plan says, “God, show me the plan so I can decide if it will work.”

When I told my husband I wanted to enroll, he asked, “What’s your plan?”

“I don’t know. I just know I’m supposed to do it.”

I expected him to say, “No way. We can’t afford it. That’s a big expense for not having a plan…” All words I expected to hear, and part of the reason I’d put it off so long. But when my husband said, “Go ahead,” I was blown away.

“I’m not sure how we’ll pay for it, but you should do it. I think you need to do it.”
That might sound like a supportive husband to you but my husband generally needs a plan. He needs to know where things are going and how we get there. For him to say, “Go ahead”—that was confirmation for me.

That night I enrolled. The next day I was contacted by an editor I’d worked with before. She wanted to know if I would write some Sunday school curriculum. The job paid enough to cover two semesters of classes. I called my husband and told him. Through the phone, I heard a relieved breath. “Good,” he said, “I didn’t think we’d be able to afford it. I prayed something would happen.”

We’re learning together. When we live our lives according to God’s will and pray for ways to accomplish it, God always provides in his way and his time. We just have to be willing to let go of the plan and follow him.

Are you willing to trust God’s plan?

Sarah Stasik lives on a crooked mountain in Virginia with her husband and son. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Kid’s Ark, Penned from the Heart, and Standard Publishing’s Program books. Read Sarah’s devotions.

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Deep in the Water – Sarah Stasik
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I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death… Philippians 3:10

During my childhood summers, we spent weeks at my grandparents’ lakeside home. Some evenings, my grandmother would send us down to the lake with tiny shampoo bottles and soap to bathe in our swimsuits. I guess she figured some soap and water was better than none at all…

We’d swim until the sun dipped low on the horizon and the smell of biscuits wafted down the hill. Then we’d climb onto the dock, lather hair, bodies, and bathing suits, and line up for diving. I remember those dives today. My body hit the silk of evening lake water and plunged forward. The warm top-water extended several feet below the surface. Plenty of room in that top layer to dive and be rinsed, but I didn’t want the top layer – I wanted what was below! I kicked into the lake, pushing myself down to colder water. My skin tingled. My body–relaxed from the warm water–charged back to life.
                                                                                                                                       Our relationship with Christ is like diving into the lake. Just knowing him at all is enough to get you clean. He surrounds you with his love if you dive just that deep.

But He wants to do more for you. And if you take action, if you dive beneath the surface layer of relationship with him, He will revitalize you and send you back to the surface with shouts of joy and praise. He will do this again and again and every time you dive deeper, you will get to know him better.

I spent parts of my summer for years at my grandparents’ house, and dove deep into the water hundreds of times. I never tired of it, but that tingle of lake water is nothing compared to the charge I experience when I dive deeper with Jesus. You can feel that charge every day of your life if you let go of the worldly surface and go a little deeper.

If a relationship with Jesus on the surface is so wondrous, can you imagine what He has waiting for you once you get to the heart of things? You can find out today; just tell him you are ready to dive.

Sarah Stasik lives on a crooked mountain in Virginia with her husband and son. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Kid’s Ark, Penned from the Heart, and Standard Publishing’s Program books. Read Sarah’s devotions.