Faith With A Side Of Works, Please!

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the alter? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?  James 2: 19-22 NKJV


Our oldest son, Man Man, is your average bouncing boy going about his day doing everything he can squeeze in from wake up to bedtime. He moves so fast in EVERYTHING he does and manages to forget nothing in the process. He picks up new things so quickly it is amazing! Well, football didn't come that quickly for him and that being the Commander's love in his youth, Man Man felt that it should come natural to him too. Why not, everything else does?

I remember many times watching Man Man and the Commander throwing around the football and seeing Man Man try time after time to catch it. He would make all of these fly swatting type motions that would result in the ball slipping right through his hands. Sometimes, he would even take a painful looking hit or two from the ball but crying and everything, he would get back up and keep trying.

Me being, the recovering perfectionist that I am, am learning so much from my son! I picture things going a certain way and in the past, when I failed in making that happen, I would get so frustrated and often the very things I wanted to achieve would go undone or be missed while I sat wallowing in my self pity. Opportunities passed me by so many times because, I was blinded by what I felt I could not do, the way I saw it being done. Initially, I would be so excited and have so much motivation! I was on the run, chasing after every hope and dream I held inside. I would start my task and as soon as things started fall out of the perfect path in my mind, the pity party would begin. After a while, I would just say what I wanted to do or what I wanted to happen and foolishly just think that magically it would.

I am being delivered from that disappointing and unsuccessful way of doing things but with much practice of trying, reajusting and trying again. I am letting my desires be that of the Lords' for me, and what do you know, everything falls in line almost perfectly (with my working according His will of course!) Man Man, I am excited to report is catching the football like a pro! This little guy had so much Faith that he was going to be good at catching and throwing the football around with his daddy. He Worked and Worked often times, leaving extremely disappointed but he didn't quit. His persistant faith and practice led to the accomplishment of his goal and yes Mama was yelling and screaming like I was at an NFL game :D