It’s hard to believe Ellie has been potty-trained for four years now. It seems like just yesterday that I would get so excited when she got even a little trickle into the potty. “Good job!” I’d say, trying to strike the right balance between affirmation and not calling too much attention to the whole process.
My husband and I joked that Ellie should write a coffee table book, one of those oversized ones with pictures, called Potties of America, because she liked to check out the potty everywhere we went. It didn’t matter if she’d just successfully used the potty at Target; when we walked into Wal-Mart, she suddenly had to go again.
Potty training was going well. But every now and then, Ellie still needed a little help with clothes that were difficult to unfasten. I remember one time when my husband told Ellie to go potty, since we were about to leave the house. “But Daddy, I can’t get the button,” Ellie said.
So Daddy helped her manage the difficult fastening.
Maybe this scene seems insignificant, considering that similar ones happen in households across the world every day. But it illustrates a profound spiritual truth.
Just as Ellie’s daddy responded when she needed help in completing what he asked her to do, so our heavenly Father responds when we need His help in carrying out the services He asks of us.
We often hear the statement, “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.”
I would amend that to say, “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle with His help.”
He most certainly does assign us tasks that are beyond—sometimes far beyond—our ability to complete on our own. But He always offers the help we need to be able to achieve what He’s required of us.
God will never charge us with accomplishing something with which He will not also help us. Can you imagine an earthly parent saying to her child, “It’s time for you to learn how to drive. Here are the keys. Good luck, because I won’t be with you. I hope you figure it out”?
Of course not. And if we, being evil, know how to come to our children’s aid, and are willing to do so, how much more does our heavenly Father desire to help us do what He asks of us?
Sometimes, as moms, as Christians, or as both, we get the idea that we shouldn’t need help, because we should be able to do everything by ourselves. Then, when we run into trouble, we spend far too much time trying on our own to force things to work out, when clearly the situation is beyond our capabilities.
The next time we encounter difficulties—and there will come a next time—let’s be quick to lay down our pride and our mistaken ideas that we have the ability to be independent. Let’s recognize and admit it when we need help.
For one thing, we were made to need our Creator, and it’s a mistake ever to think we can be independent. For another, when we show a watching world that we need Him, and that He is sufficient to make us fully capable, we bring Him glory.
And bringing Him glory is a far greater privilege than being able to say, “I did it myself.”
Matthew 7:11—If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
2 Samuel 22:30—With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.