Hold Your Horses!

Being a child-minder means that I get to spend lots of time with very young children.  It also means that God sometimes has a funny way of speaking to me. 

Recently, I’ve been trying to make headway with a chapter book I started a few years ago.  For all sorts of reasons, it has taken me much longer than I ever anticipated to make any real progress.  

The last three years have been particularly hectic.  Trying to juggle a 40-hour working week, be a parent to four children, keep on top of house chores, do a weekly grocery shop, plus walk the dog on my days off, often means that my ‘free-time’  gets swallowed up.    There have also been some really difficult personal circumstances that have weighed heavy on me.

Is it any wonder that when I do sit down at the keyboard, my brain is often too frazzled to write?

Sometimes I get discouraged at my lack of progress.  Sometimes, I wrongly focus on what I haven’t managed to achieve, rather than what I have.  I fall into the comparison trap.  Other people seem to be producing book after book.  I can’t even seem to finish one.  'What is wrong with me?' I berate myself -  'Maybe I’m just not cut out for this.'

Perhaps you feel like this at times too?

The other day, the little ones and I were having a sing-song.  Kids love a good sing-song, don’t they?  Earlier that morning, I’d been praying about my writing, and asking God to deal with the restlessness and frustration that I am too prone to slip into.  

We went through a few of the usual suspects – Wheels on the Bus, Wind the Bobbin Up, and Five Little Ducks.  Then all of a sudden, one of the little girls requested that we sing her favourite: ‘Horsey Horsey.’  Just in case you’re unfamiliar with it, the words go like this:

Horsey, Horsey, don’t you stop,

Just let your feet go clippety-clop!

Your tail goes swish and the wheels go round,

Giddy-up, we’re homeward bound.

Nothing too unusual about that.  But then came the verse.  

We’re not in a hurry, we’re not in a flurry,

So don’t go tearing up the road,

We’re not in a hustle, we’re not in a bustle

And we don’t have a very heavy load!

All of a sudden, I felt God’s fatherly heart of love towards me.  Those sweet and funny words cut right into the source of my frustration!  So often,  I start fretting and getting out of step with the Spirit.  It's so easy to go tearing off up the road, not even waiting for my Master's command.  Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing.  Wow!  God’s never in a hurry or a flurry.  He's never in a hustle or a bustle – and He certainly doesn’t want our writing to become a heavy load.

It can become a heavy load when we strive.  When we worry and get anxious and compare ourselves to others and try to produce things in our own strength.  When we forget that in order to breathe out, we first need to breathe in.  Those that wait on the Lord will renew their strength.  

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls- Matthew 11:29 (NASB)

Lord, teach us how to stay in step with You in our writing!

Angela Jelf writes stories and poems for kids of all ages.  She's had a handful of devotional stories published by Keys for Kids Ministries, plus poems printed in The Toy Press and The Dirigible Balloon.  She lives in London with her family, a bouncy Labrador called Amber and a daft cat called Moses.