Steps to the footprint

Today's message at church took me on a journey of several thoughts. I will take you down a couple of those paths. The pastor talked about footprints. I visualized the Footprints poem of when there is only one set of footprints and it is Jesus' prints because he is carrying us until we are able to walk on our own. The other visualization came from the picture my pastor painted. Visualize a freshly fallen snow. It is so fresh and beautiful. Visualize yourself as a child following your father. He takes a step and there lies his footprint in the snow; one after the other. His stride is longer than your stride, but you are determined to walk in his prints. You walk behind him trying to step within his footprint. You start out following inside the print with little difficulty, but as you go along and become tired and your effort becomes weary, you find it harder to step far enough to get within the print. Soon you find yourself leaping to make the distance. Soon you become wearier and those leaps are harder to perform so your landing isn't inside the print, but on the edge and eventually not quite inside the prints. Your goal remains in site—following your father and walking in his prints, but the steps to get there become harder and sometimes there is a misstep. It takes two steps to get to one print. Yet you keep trying, leaping, walking and forging forward.

Sometimes we feel we fall short of the goal. It takes continuous discipline to endure the race. We start out with the goal in sight and the steps planned and the determination to dance the dance. As we walk we can grow weary, our steps start to stumble and our resolve grows weak. BUT our sights are still on the goal-we still leap to take the steps we need to take to work towards the goal. No matter how short we fall we keep leaping to reach the next step towards the ultimate goal. Sometimes it takes 4-5 steps to get back into step with the original goal. You don't give up because of your "shortness", but you step the steps that can lead you back to the goal. Each day we work towards the goal no matter how far we fall. Keep leaping, keep stepping, and keep moving forward; keep disciplined.

The goal doesn't change but sometimes the steps to the goal must be adjusted. The progress will win through the process of steps, leaps, stumbles and falls. They key is to get back up, double step and keep focus on the footprints.

 

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling 
							

but in rising every time we fall."

     ~ Confucius~