When you're little and your mom or dad is in the pool telling you to jump and promising that they'll be there to catch you. You trust them. And then you jump. And they catch you. Done deal. Now you'll be obnoxious and ask them to catch you eight million times because you trust that they'll be there every time. To this day, I can call my parents any time of day and they'll be there for me. Extra done deal.
But man oh man. God save the soul of the boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend that breaks that bond of trust. It's SO hard to trust again! Imagine if my dad had just let me sink to the bottom of that pool. Assuming I am alive after that, I'm going to bet I'd have some serious trust issues with Dad. How do you gain that back. YOU LET ME SINK! You let me down! You broke my heart! I get a horrible feeling in my stomach when I imagine putting any sort of faith in you whatsoever!
These feelings don't just go away. These feelings fester, they hurt, they drive distance between you, and in my case...there's really no return.
So you say you want to earn my trust back? How do you do that exactly? Just catch me every time after that and hope that when I'm 90 years old I won't remember that you dropped me that very first time?
Fortunately I live a life where I have someone I can always rely on to catch me when I jump, and that's God. Humans will ALWAYS fail. Always? Yes, always. And that sucks. I can't imagine growing up without a parent/parents/anyone at all. But even in those cases, God is there for those people too.
So next time I jump and someone let's me fall, instead of looking around for someone else to pick me back up again, I'll try to remember to look up to my Heavenly Father who I can always depend on.
*Disclaimer: My relationship with my dad is awesome. This was just a metaphor. Love you, Dad!*
