As an independent gal for almost ten years now, I like to call myself self-sufficient, self-supporting, self-reliant, self-sustaining. But, even as I type those words, they sound very \u201cself\u201d-minded! Lord knows \u2013 I want to be others minded \u2013 NOT self-minded. For example, when offered help out of my son\u2019s big duly Ford F-350, I have been known to say \u201cnot yet\u201d \u2013 as I slowly maneuver that 3 feet down out of the back seat by myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, I did take hold of my grandson’s hand when we were traversing the canyons and caverns of Reimer’s Park. I’m no dummy! I really do know when I need to humble-up and admit when I need help. But, I loved it when I saw a tree branch that we could turn into a great walking stick to help me scale those boulders. Back to my independent self again! Oh, I get it! I, undoubtedly, will relent from my self-reliance the more mature I get. I’m already doing that when I get up in the morning and move slower than I once did. That’s why I quickly get to my morning walk to get these body-parts moving and grooving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m revisiting the times when my sweet mama had to depend on us more as she \u201cmatured\u201d. She was super independent and only after she fell at age 94, did she submit. Then there\u2019s my dear 97-year-old mother-in-law, who had been independent for years after dad passed away, but is now extremely dependent on her kids and her walker and even sometimes, her wheelchair. It came with great difficulty to relinquish her independence, but now she gladly allows us to help her out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funny how, in this independent mindset that we hold on to for so long, we become almost too good at being self-sufficient. I\u2019m guilty as charged. Fortunately, there have been very few things that I couldn\u2019t do myself, especially in this age of being able to google just about anything. DIY is my go-to in most instances and thank God for the internet that has been my bestie in so many occasions. In fact, last night I used Google to figure out how to fix the loose stitching on my sewing machine. And, whoa-la, it worked. Stitch \u2013 fixed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Self-sufficiency might be an admirable quality to strive for, but now I’m thinking I need to guard myself against becoming too good at it. I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 asking for help humbles me. Perhaps I need humbling \u2013 because this self-sufficiency almost crosses the line of being selfish in accepting the kindness of others and may even keep them from being blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, perhaps, our self-sufficiency keeps us from an intimate, close relationship with our Lord Who is the ALL-Sufficient One, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9.8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The All-Sufficiency of God means He is a God of infinite riches of wisdom, goodness, and power. And His \u201call-sufficiency\u201d is available to His kids as a treasure chest of blessings. That means we can let go of our self-sufficiency and receive the all-encompassing sufficiency of our God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Heavenly Father longs to have that close relationship with us. He wants us to ask Him for help. He wants to save us from a lot of the mistakes we’ll make without His wisdom. It\u2019s easy to rely on our own strength, our own ability, and our own wisdom \u2014 so much so that we no longer reach out to our Father and let Him in to help us. It\u2019s so easy to start to leave Him out of our daily life, decisions and activities, and only run to Him when there\u2019s a big crisis. Even in the thick of our daily challenges and struggles, God is right there to lay His gentle hand on our shoulder to say \u201cLet Me help you with that.\u201d He\u2019s hoping we will let Him help. He never stops loving us or wanting that relationship with us, even when we feel like we should have it all together by now. I don\u2019t like calling out for help to anyone, but I\u2019m seeing that there are times when I must. In the same way, God is a mere call away when we call upon Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalm 91:15 \u201cCall on me and I will answer you. I will be with you in trouble. I will deliver you and honor you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As an independent gal for almost ten years now, I like to call myself self-sufficient, self-supporting, self-reliant, self-sustaining. But, even as I type those words, they sound very \u201cself\u201d-minded! Lord knows \u2013 I want to be others minded \u2013 NOT self-minded. For example, when offered help out of my son\u2019s big duly Ford F-350, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17339,17340,17341],"tags":[17335,17337,1210,2900,1600,2902,5635,530,2904,2907,17258,575,17334,17338,12102,17336,17333],"class_list":["post-12433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-sufficient","category-indpendent","category-self-sufficient","tag-2-corinthians-98","tag-all-sufficient","tag-blog","tag-diy","tag-father","tag-google","tag-humble","tag-humility","tag-independent","tag-psalm-9115","tag-reimers-park","tag-relationship","tag-self-minded","tag-self-reliant","tag-self-sufficient","tag-self-supporting","tag-self-sustaining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12436,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12433\/revisions\/12436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}