The Cat

  The Ghosts of Green Lake

  Lesson on Life

  Rock in Your Sandbox

  Tender Fields of Grace

  Tips from a Dog

A Rock in Your Sandbox

Author Unknown

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the sand. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet.

When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the slight wall. Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved—but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers. Finally, he burst into tears of frustration.

At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow moved across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father who had watched from his living room window as the scene unfolded. Gently he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?”

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!”

“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.”

With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

Do you have “rocks” in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you don’t have what it takes to lift them? There is One who is always available to us and willing to give us the strength we need. When we are broken in spirit and our strength is spent, we can turn to our heavenly Father, and ask for his strength.