Lessons from Leeland: Faith

Leeland has been learning and growing so fast in the past few weeks and months! After army crawling for a long time, he finally started getting up on his hands and knees and from there, started pulling up on everything. He LOVES standing. The only problem was that he couldn't figure out how to get down. He would pull up on the tv stand, play around and enjoy himself, and when he was done, he would look at the "long way" down and get terrified. He would scream and cry until Mom would come along to help him down.

Then one night, when all of the family was over, he started doing squats. He was holding on with both hands but going up and down, up and down. I pulled out my phone and started videoing because it was pretty cute. Then, right when I started videoing, he started exploring a little more. He tried to reach down and touch the floor but couldn't quite reach yet. Then suddenly, he did it- he let go. He landed (almost) softly on his bottom and realized it wasn't that bad. He turned and looked at his audience and flashed a satisfied smile. He did it!

I learned a valuable lesson from Leeland that night- a lesson in faith. Faith requires letting go. Letting go is scary. That's why Leeland didn't do it for a few weeks. But then he exercised faith. He could have stayed where it was safe, but he chose to step out. It didn't require much, just one simple action, but it opened up a whole new world for him.

I was reading Matthew 17. Jesus' disciples had tried to heal a boy but they just couldn't. So the boy was brought to Jesus and just like that, he was healed. Later on, the disciples pulled Jesus aside and asked why they had been unable to heal the boy. You know what Jesus said?

"Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20-21

Ouch. I kind of feel like that was a slap in the face to the disciples. I'm sure in their minds, they felt like they had faith. But I think they just hadn't let go. See, you can't say you have faith when you are still clinging to the edge of the TV stand, dreading that two foot drop to the ground. True faith only comes when you let go, take the plunge, and trust God to guide you. And just like Jesus said in those verses, when we have even the tiniest bit of that, a whole new world of opportunities is available to us! (...umm..moving mountains?? what?)

So, today I'm gonna let go and see what God has in store. I will take that leap of faith and see what mountains we can move together. After all, I have seen time after time that God's plans are much greater than mine. I put my faith in that.