I can't fix this... but God can!

By: Melanie Moore

The other day, my sons accidentally knocked over a bottle of red Gatorade on my beige carpet. I know accidents happen to all of us, but the problem here was.... no one told us until the Gatorade was totally soaked into the carpet and dried! 

I'll just pause here to say that neither red Gatorade nor beige carpets are great ideas if you have children, especially boys. But I digress...

Of course, as soon as I saw the mess, I instantly panicked. I imagined having to replace all of the carpet since the stain was in the middle of the open floor. As the dollar signs racked up in my brain, I decided to tackle the problem. However, the more I scrubbed, the bigger mess I made! Somehow the red Gatorade was spreading into an even bigger area than we started with, and I felt hopeless to resolve this disaster.

As I scrubbed and saw my mess spreading, I thought about how many times I do the same thing in life. I'll face a problem, and instead of going to God about it, my first instinct is to jump in and fix it myself. Nine times out of ten, my "fixing" the problem actually just makes a bigger mess than I started with!

I'm learning this hard truth in difficult situations -- I can't fix the problem, but God can.

God is teaching me to pause and trust Him when I'm faced with problems. He knows the problems I will face, and He has prepared the lessons He wants me to learn in the middle of the problems. When I jump in to "fix" it myself, I not only make a bigger mess of things, but I am completely and totally missing the lessons God is trying to teach me in the middle of the mess.

I think about Sarah in the Bible, when she and Abraham were so desperate to have children of their own. Rather than trust God and wait for His timing, Sarah took matters into her own hands and decided that she would come up with a plan to "fix" things. I can so relate to her! However, as we see in Genesis 15-21, Sarah's plan to fix things actually made quite a mess and had severe consequences for her, Abraham, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael. 

When I am tempted to fix things myself instead of waiting on God, I am learning to practice the pause.

Pause... and talk with God -- tell Him what you are facing and how you are feeling.

Pause... and listen to God -- listen to what God is teaching you in this moment and this circumstance.

Pause... and praise God -- thank God that He is all-powerful and in control of each moment in our lives. There is nothing that surprises Him, and we can trust His goodness in all things.

I pray this encourages you today, and that when the next problem comes up (or if you find a red Gatorade mess!), you will join me in practicing the pause before God. We can't fix things... but God can!