Barbie Doll Feet

I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. --Psalm 118:13-14

Last month the guest speaker at our church's annual Women's Retreat talked about how we are to survive our failure as Christians. She said that unless we are being supported by God, we fall flat on our faces. As a poignant visual aid she brought along her "Pastor's Wife Barbie" and proceeded to try to make the doll stand on its own. Naturally, Barbie wasn't up to the task. This is because Barbie's feet are ridiculously molded into what looks to be a rather painful position. As the speaker (whose name, incidentally, is Barb) talked about her own personal struggles, we watched "Pastor's Wife Barbie" fall face first each time Barb let go of her. In her personal testimony, Barb confided that she usually did well with self-discipline for about 3 days before she grew complacent and forgot to ask for God's continual support in her efforts.

I find that the same is true for me. I could give you every excuse why I had trouble getting up and starting my day on time today, but the fact of the matter is that I let my personal feelings take precedence over my behavior. I was lazy. I didn't let God have full control of the situation, and predictably I fell on my face.

Inevitably, we all fail as Christians. We fall miserably short of living blamelessly and obediently. For each of us, this happens on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. I don't like to admit how weak I am. I like to believe that I am a self-motivated, self-disciplined person. This is how the world teaches us to think. The enemy would like us to believe that we don' need God for much of anything, let alone the mundane aspects of daily life.

We need God as much as we need air, water and food in order to survive. Surviving our failure as Christians does not mean that we throw up our hands in defeat. We make be able to offer ourselves and each other convincing excuses as to why we are disobedient, but no excuse is good enough for God. Daily we must repent of our selfishness and come before Him with a humble heart, asking him for a measure of His grace to help up stand once again. Even with Barbie doll feet, we are able to stand so long as we ask God to hold us up. Because Christ is our salvation, we don't need to be discouraged when we start to stumble.