Just Kick Me!
My family lives out in the country. But make no mistake I am not a country girl. I want to be but I didn’t grow up that way and it’s a struggle. I love the country scenery though. And out in the country we see some sights. Some are absolutely beautiful. Nothing prettier than a sunset over a fresh cut field in the summer. Nothing better than eating watermelon on your back porch or tearing up a country dusty road as you fly down it without a care in the world. I just love those experiences and scenes. Not being a country girl at heart, I try to keep my eyes open to this new life and learn as I go along. Like I said, sometimes it’s a struggle.
But, the other day, I noticed a field of horses that I drive by every day with little fanfare. Each day they eat and run up and down this field. Nothing was different about today except that I was actually paying attention this time. I got out of my Jeep and sat and watched them a minute. I was totally intrigued. Why? These were your average horses, nothing special about them. They were all just grazing the grass as I have seem horses do hundreds of times out there. But there was this one horse that was a little different. He kept trying to eat wherever the other horses were eating. Seriously, whereever they moved to eat, he would step in their way. Now I’m trying to reason out that there must be something amazingly different in that one part of the field that attracted him to that area. But the more I watched, the more I realized that there was nothing different in that grassy area than there was anywhere else in that huge field. The only thing different was the other horses were already there and trying to eat there. The longer the one horse kept pushing and pulling at the other to move out of the way so he could get the “good” grass, the more the other horses started following his lead and trying to do the same thing. Before long, there was pushing, kicking and even a little biting going on to get that “amazing” grass. Now to the person who understands a little more than a horse (on a good day), this seemed absolutely foolish. They have the whole field with the same opportunity for the same grass. I wanted to just kick that horse and say “Really, you can have any grass, but you have to have THAT grass? You could have more and be more effective in any other area. Why?”
Then I began to think what God was trying to show me that day. Aren’t we as women often the same way? God has given us the whole field to play in, live in and lead in. But unfortunately, we often look at our sisters and say “God, I wish I had the area she has, or the life she has, or the talents she was given, or the gift she has.” God must want to kick us like I wanted to do to that horse and say “Really? I gave you the whole field, all the grass you could want and the opportunity to lead others to do the same, and you’re worried about what she has?”
It all seems so petty and silly but it sure does trip us up and keep us from being all that God created us to be.
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Each according to the what God has assigned… given us… individually… just what He wanted us to have.
Today, let’s stop the comparison game, let’s not step in the trap that keeps us in one little corner of the field, fighting over a small spot of grass when God has given us the whole field to enjoy, to fill us up and to make Him known in a powerful way