Feb 23, 2010
Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right? Where your words come out all wrong, you mess up everything you try to accomplish, and whatever you touch seems to crumble in your hands? Days like this can make it easy to get discouraged.
Sometimes it seems like our efforts are worthless. How can we ever please God with anything we do when we are so flawed and we fall into sin over and over again? What joy can an infinite, all-powerful, and perfect God find in such limited, imperfect, tiny little beings like us? God lacks nothing; there is nothing we can offer Him to make Him more complete or fulfilled. And even when we try to offer Him the small things, we often mess up.
When I am tempted to think that I am not good enough, I remember a lesson that I learned while teaching Sunday School to first graders during my first year of college. Keeping the students’ attention was not always easy, so I tried to use pictures and activities as teaching tools. Watching the kids learn was fascinating. Even at age 6, there were some students who displayed an impressive amount of talent in all of the activities. Others were still working on developing coordination and they struggled with some of the crafts and coloring projects.
At the end of the class, the kids would all crowd around me to show me what they had made. Looking at all their creations lined up was nothing short of endearing. But the ones that struck me the most were the ones that hadn’t turned out quite right – the picture that was not colored in the lines or the project with pieces in the wrong place. It really made my day to watch the children who struggled to assemble their projects and persevered despite their frustration. They were so proud when they finally finished their work. And it was beautiful to see their faces light up when they looked at their completed, albeit slightly sloppy, product.