Gentle warmth brings a spring breeze across the open waters as the waves of the ocean crash upon the rocks. The spray is refreshing and you are captivated by the colors in the sky. The sun sets like a child snuggling under the covers; as night falls the sun is ready to take some much needed rest. You stand in awe of the sunset, whether it is at the ocean, in the mountains or in the plains. This awe is a gentle reminder of what a child’s heart is like. I often wonder about the heart of a child.
Do you wait and often wonder when that break will come for a second chance? Why is it hard to forgive others when you are wronged? There are many devices which can help aid the heart to beat. Miracles abound to save a life through medical science. There are transplants that can sustain life. Defibrillators can shock the human heart back into rhythm and machines can perform CPR without the use of human hands. However, is there a transplant than can renew the spiritual heart to that of a child?
Where do you find the heart of a child? The heart of a child fascinates me. When children are wronged by a playmate, they quickly forgive and are out playing in the streets with each other. Do you have the pure desire to change where you are now, to embrace the child’s heart? Are you caught up concentrating on things you wish you had?
The heart pumps your attitude into an altitude where your mind determines how far you want to fly. It is easy to slip into the thoughts that stop you from reaching your full potential. Life says you are a disappointment or that you will not amount to anything, and you stop short. It is easy to focus on things you are not thankful for and things you do not understand, wondering how you will manage and if you get through.
Being patient might be the hardest thing. Trust comes easy for children, but as an adult you want control, exerting the power that enables you to feel that you can accomplish and do anything. Sometimes change offers the best solution in giving up control.
When you attempt to control life, it stifles the heart like an aneurysm before a heart attack. There is no longer harmony in encouraging and advocating liveliness. It cuts off vital oxygen needed to live. Control produces stress much like bad cholesterol where too much can cause a stroke. When you resist change rather than embrace it, you lose heart on the things that can motivate you into liveliness. That is the heart of a child. Children enjoy laughter and encouragement, and they enjoy thriving and learning new things.
Look at life from a child’s eyes. Imagine if you could borrow them just for one day, and look at the mysteries this world has to offer. Embracing change is liberating, it keeps you from being controlled by life’s demands. Control is an illusion which does not allow you to grow. Controlling can cause major setbacks and those are the greatest lessons for future growth. However, is it really about controlling? Over-controlling can kill the things around you.
What do you have when you feel you are in control? You feel security. There is a need for all humans to feel secure. When you do not have security you over compensate and struggle. Therefore, control is not the issue; the issue is the need to feel secure. Wanting control is a desperate measure to stipulate for something which will make you feel secure.
Think of control and security in this matter. I was in the United States Criminal Investigations command unit and we were preparing for our next mission. We were prepping to guard dignitaries and they rented a car similar to the ones we would be driving. The instructor was sitting in the front and teaching us how to do maneuvers in case of an attack. Control for me would have been nice at this point and time (too much whiplash). There were times that I wanted to take control of the car, but I didn’t when it was not my turn to learn. Would I have learned anything, if I demanded to take control? No, and the instructor or others that were with us in the car would not either. Control is not what I really wanted or needed because security was the real issue. I wanted to feel safe. I wanted my partners in the car to be safe.
When something new challenges you, the unknown and uncharted territory can be frightening. This is where the need to feel secure is necessary. It was never about control in the car, it was about feeling safe. No one was hurt and we all were able to drive with excellent precision, felt secure and in control.
The heart of the matter is learning how to feel secure when you feel out of control. Often times it is our need for self-protection that can keep us from having good relationships, even with the Father in Heaven. Sometimes you can feel oppressed in your security (Isa 38:14); but the key is finding peace in stillness (Ps. 46:10) in understanding that He is your fortress (2 Sam 22:33).
My heart had to change from needing control to needing to feel secure. When you work hard in achieving, you believe you have to protect that achievement and feel you have “earned” that right; you can suffer pain and hurt those around you because you are living by faith in yourself as the source of security. Sometimes feeling secure is avoiding risk and we say, “I do not want to talk about it” in order to self-protect from being wounded. This is where you have to be honest with yourself and ask, do you feel safe and secure or do you have the need to over-control?
You have the power to control in a healthy manner by “walking on water” like Peter. However, it is when you are threatened, like Peter was when he walked on the water, when you give up the control to feel secure. You will make a mistake, you may disappoint someone, but the bottom line is learning to transform your heart into that of a child and learn to feel secure. Children do not have to give up control in order to feel security in the hand of their parent leading them to a new place. It is that heart, H(armonious) E(ncouragement) A(dvocates) R(enderable) T(hrive) that motivates change, allowing you to enjoy security in the beating of your drum.
By Faith (Forging Attitude In Trusting Him)
