One evening recently, my Sister and I went ice-skating! This was our very first time. Neither of us wanted to fall, so we started by “marching” around while holding onto the wall of the ice rink. Well, I got a little impatient and tired of just walking the walls. I ventured away and tried to glide some, too. I noticed some things during our time there that I want to share. 

First of all, when I started to look at how others were skating and try to copy them, or notice how fast they were going, and I tried to speed up a little, I would usually end up losing my balance a little or getting off my flow. 

In this life in our Christian walks, we look at others and the way they are doing things. It is then that we lose our path because we focus on someone else’s path. 

Another thing we do is look at how far along someone else is, and we want to catch up, so to speak. We think they are so much farther along spiritually than us, and we lose the knowledge of the importance of our own relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Sometimes I would feel impatient with myself on the rink. We can be impatient with ourselves, thinking that we are spiritually developing too slowly. But we need to remember God is patient with us, and He will work on us in His time according to our needs. 

We tend to set expectations for ourselves. Like how I might have hoped to be gliding before our time was up. But we set unrealistic expectations too often, like how well we should be doing or how far along we are. Looking at others, we may think, ‘they started after me,’ ‘wow, how are they so fast,’ ‘have they even fallen one time?’ But God knows our thoughts even before we think them. He does not want us to compare ourselves with others. Their walk is between them and the Lord, and yours is between you and the Lord! [I want to clarify that there is a place for a loving brother and sister in Christ to come alongside and point out something which could hinder, listen in love, then take it to God’s Word to be sure it is Biblical and pray about it.] 

My friend, God extends His grace to you. Please accept that and give yourself grace to grow— to learn to skate! 

Did I fall while skating? Yes, 3 times to be specific. But did I stay there? No (only for a minute or so). See, I wanted to learn to skate. I figured falling kind of goes with the activity. Well, I would get up and start again. God gives us saving grace and keeping grace. So, we do not need to fall. However, we are human, we are tempted, and occasionally we stumble and fall. Do we stay down? No, absolutely not! The devil wants you there, so determine not to let him win. God will pick you up when you turn to Him and humbly cry for His forgiveness! God gives us second, third, and even fourth chances and more if required. He loves you and wants you to join Him in Heaven some sweet day. There will be no stumbling, no falling, no devil, and no temptations there! Hallelujah!!! 

Remember that my friend, when you feel like you are failing or flailing, call for help. For Peter, all it took was three simple words, “Lord, save me.” All it takes is a humble heart calling on our loving heavenly Father to save us! 

By Esther Seeley