Monday, December 20, 2010

Baby Steps

If you've never seen the film What About Bob starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus you need to repent.  In the movie, Murray plays a charming, but troubled man with all sorts of mental hangups.  Dreyfus plays his shrink and some very funny stuff ensues, so if you've yet to see it you're in for some laughs.  One recurring theme that keeps coming up in the movie is the idea of taking your life one small baby step at a time.  Although the movie's not meant to be deep or profound and though the dominant theme of the story is more about the importance of relationships, the concept of "baby steps" isn't a bad one.

Ashlyn took 10 to 15 baby steps this past week.  She's still not confident to venture too far from the support of the couch or coffee table, but she's making progress, slowly but surely.  Most of the time when she's taken 5 or 6 steps, she'll pause, realize like Peter on the Sea of Galilee that her steps don't seem safe, and then plop down on her backside.  We're not at all worried that she won't yet trust herself to take more steps, even though its obvious she can.  We're content to let her take those baby steps one at a time, on her own time.     

Increasingly in our world people have grown impatient with baby steps.  We don't want it now, we wanted it 10 minutes ago.  Yet so many things in life take time and its important not to judge the end product by the work in progress.  My life is still a work in progress and I'm thankful that God has given me the grace to take one small step at a time. - Shay

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