You’re Gonna Break It

​While trying to make an illustration during my Kingdom Kids moment (Children’s teaching moment) in the sermon, I got a pearl of wisdom from a small child. I had a pencil and an electric pencil sharpener for the illustration. I tried with great effort to sharpen the pencil on my own without the pencil sharpener plugged in. Then I showed them how much easier it was to sharpen the pencil when I plugged in the sharpener. It provided the power to get the job done.
          This was to demonstrate the idea that no matter how hard we try to solve our problems it works much easier when we pray about things and plug into God’s power through prayer. The kids were all getting it so to end the demonstration I did it one more time. I unplugged the sharpener and pushed and twisted every hard to try and sharpen the pencil on my own and then planned to once again to plug it in to show the kids how much easier with the power applied.
          While I was doing the final twisting on the pencil (Without the power on) one little perky 5-year-old girl said these words of wisdom, “If you don’t quit trying to fix it on your own you are going to break it”. And just like that the ah ha moment occurred for me. How many times do I keep on trying to fix a problem on my own rather than turning it over to God through prayer to fix it? How many times do I keep on trying to fix it on my own and wind up breaking it – making it worse instead of trusting God to take care of it?
          This 5-year-old opened my eyes to spiritual depth and insight that I was making it too complex to see. The Bible reminds us that out of the mouths of babies comes strength and wisdom. So many times, we expend so much unnecessary energy, fret, worry, and fear trying to solve a problem that, if we would just pray, God has a simple easy solution? I was trying to demonstrate the power of plugging into the prayer power source and yet I was missing the point – I have to stop trying and start trusting for the power to best be utilized. WOW.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs