Determined Frustration {or Frustrated Determination?} …

That look on his face. Lips pushed together and out. Eyes focused.  He saw the snow outside. He wanted to be out there. He was determined to find a way.

He pushed the stool up to the window. He figured out how to unlock the window. But he wasn’t clever enough to understand that he’d have to lift the heavy window to get it open and then a mesh screen would be his next obstacle.

I sat for quite some time watching him try to do it by himself. It didn’t take too long before he was so frustrated he was crying. When I finally asked him what was wrong he pled with me, “Pwease momma, I go out da snow?”

“Sure thing,” I said. I bundled him up and out he went.

He had a sweet big brother who was willing to help him down the steep and slippery parts.

How many times have I stood at the window, seeing exactly where I wanted to be, but frustrated because no matter how I tried I couldn’t get there by myself.

Failure number one: thinking I can do it by myself.

One of the great tests of this life is whether or not we will lean on our Heavenly Father for help. He waits patiently for us to come to Him. Sometimes He even has to watch us cry in frustration. He wants to help us. We need only ask.

He puts people in our lives to help us get through the steep and slippery parts.  People who also want us to succeed. They are here to help us.

God is continually opening the doors for me in my life that I cannot open. And he is continually putting people in my life to help me get to where I want to be.

And each time I reach that point where wanting and being become the same, I feel like a child embarking in the freshly fallen snow.  So many possibilities. So much joy. So much awareness of all that is good around me. A clean slate ready for me to leave my footprints.

Just ask Him. He will help you, too.