Baby Steps.

My sister called me yesterday with detailed instructions for my babysitting stint today. One of the things I was supposed to do was get Andrew in a nice little outfit, shoes and all, for his Grandma's birthday (my b-i-l's mom) today. So this morning, at 6:30 (by the way, this kid's an alarm clock!), I dressed Andrew in his outfit for the day and decided to stick his shoes on. As he lay on the table, he looked trustingly up at me as I fiddled with the tiny shoe.

I bet if he knew what I was doing, he would not have been so quiet!

Less than a minute after I put the shoes on (which were absolutely darling with the outfit), Andrew decided he didn't want them on. So he pulled them off and I gave in, since this was the first time in his 11-month life that I had ever seen shoes for him.

Later in the morning, I had to put them back on since we were going to go outside. I knew how easily he kicks his socks off, so I thought to keep his feet warm and his socks on by putting back on the shoes. This time I succeeded and I double-knotted them so he couldn't pull them off again! To quote Anne of Green Gables, "That's the one good thing about me; I never make the same mistake twice!"

Andrew is starting to walk with help, so I stood him on the floor while I held his hands. We stood in the hallway for about 10 seconds as I waited for him to begin walking. But the shoes posed an obstacle for him and he was unsure of what to do. Finally he lifted his left foot up (with the heavy shoe too!) and moved it forward just a tiny bit. But it was a step! Eventually his right foot was brought forward too, and he took a grand total of 3 steps in those awkward shoes before he stopped.

As I watched my nephew try to walk, I couldn't help but think about the fact that my Christian walk is very similar to what he was doing. I can be zipping along, comfortable in what I'm doing when an obstacle is placed before me, just like Andrew was used to walking in his socks and now was confronted with a new scenario of shoes.

But I need to make sure that I'm doing something... that I'm taking those *baby steps*. I think about what Paul wrote about running the race, and how it's more important to run the race than it is the be the first one done with the race.

Last night at an English Bible study for Chinese, one girl told me she had never heard the story of Cain and Abel before. At first I felt rather ashamed for taking the Bible for granted, but then as I thought about it today, I realized I have an opportunity to share, in baby steps, all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful stories of the Bible that point to one story: HIS STORY (history)!

My steps may falter and I might even stumble at times, but I know that baby steps are better than no steps at all!

"Direction, Not Perfection"