A walk outside

Today was..well, not what I expected. We went to church, dropped the kids off, then 30 minutes into the service, we got a call that our house alarm went off. We grabbed the kids and rushed home after being assured that the cops were on their way. When we got home do you know what we found?

Nothing. A balloon that we bought the kids had moved when the AC came on and set the motion sensor off. I'm sure we were the least exciting call the cops had gotten all day.

We did enjoy some time outside though. It was one of those overcast, perfect-for-picture-taking kind of days. So Connor and I took a trip outside while Haley was napping.

This guy is busy perfecting his walking. He actually has it down really well, as long as he's not wearing shoes that is.

Shoes on his little chunky feet make him one angry dude. The minute we put them on him, he kicks and whines pitifully until they come off again. It's not comfortable for him, shoes just make his little life more difficult. It made me think of how our relationship with God can be sometimes. When something hard comes along, we kick and scream instead of doing what we should do - just come to Him.

And He picks us up and sets us on our feet again.

That's not to say we won't have other spills later. But He's always there, watching over us like any caring parent does. Ready to wipe away the tears and pick us up again. Because ultimately, we have to go through the hard stuff to make us stronger.

Even though it may be hard to understand at the time, one day we'll look back on all that hard stuff and say, "If I hadn't tried and tripped a little, I wouldn't have learned how to walk."

So thank you God for shoes. And for helping us up when we fall.