FOODFORTHOUGHT

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his
sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic
pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating
roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the
middle of the sandbox. The lad dug around the rock, managing to
dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed
and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a
very small boy and the rock was very huge.)

When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he
found that he couldn't roll it up and over the little wall.
Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time
he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell
back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed,
shoved -- but his only reward was to have the rock roll back,
smashing his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of
frustration.

All this time the boy's father watched from his living room window
as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow
fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy's father. Gently
but firmly he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that
you had available?"

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all
the strength that I had!"

"No, son," corrected the father kindly. "You didn't use all the
strength you had. You didn't ask me."

With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed
it from the sandbox.

Do you have "rocks" in your life that need to be removed? Are you
discovering that you don't have what it takes to lift them? There
is One who is always available to us and willing to give us the
strength we need. When the apostle Paul faced times of a broken
spirit and sapped strength, he proclaimed to the Corinthian
church, "My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, then my
power is made perfect in you" (2 Corinthians 12:9b NCV). When we are
broken in spirit and our strength is spent, we can turn to our Savior
Jesus.

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