FOODFORTHOUGHT

SANDBOX ROCK

Author Unknown

July 31, 2012

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.