Just Get Moving
I had my purple bucket in hand. I walked down to the lake. My impatiens were thirsty and I wanted to water them.
I didn’t notice that Mama Duck and her six ducklings were by the water’s edge.
But as soon as I dipped my bucket into the water, I heard a flurry of activity. Mama and her babies were swimming away from me as fast as their little legs could flap.
They didn’t know they could trust me. They just knew that they had to go.
Sometimes dangers are on land. Other times, turtles in the water are their biggest enemy.
We used to raise ducklings when our daughters were tweens. We’d buy little yellow fur balls in the spring. Little by little we’d let them first play in the brook, then go out a little further into the lake, often rescuing one if they wandered too far away or began floundering.
But in order to keep growing, the ducklings had to keep moving, whether on land or in water.
Often we don’t know which way to go next ourselves. We don’t know who to trust. We can become paralyzed by indecision and just stay stuck in our corner.
But often the best move is just to make one. Just show up. Do the next thing. Trust that God will be beside you, whether to the right or the left.
God is honored when we move forward in faith.
And if we choose the wrong path? He’ll correct our course in due time and set things right again.
I wish these wild ducks had known my danger level to them was zero. I find baby mallards adorable. I’d never hurt them.
But not knowing that, they did the next right thing: they got moving.
May we get moving, too.
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Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Love this Monday morning post, Lisa!
Yes, let’s just show up, do the next right thing, and believe that God is going to show us the next steps we should take.
Have a great one …
Aren’t we blessed to know God will always be in our next steps? Have a great week, Linda!
Knowing what is safe and not safe seems to be a battle we face…no matter the age. it should be a daily prayer for each of us to “choose wisely.”
You’re right that this battle never goes away; it just morphs into different forms. Some of the challenges I face in my 50s are different than the decisions that I faced in my 20s. Lord, give discernment in every season!
sounds like you’ve been listening to Elisabeth Elliot: “Do the next thing”! wonderful post. Thank you!
I am so grateful for Elisabeth Elliot’s advice to do the next thing! It has blessed me so many times through the years. Thanks, Lynn.
So true- it’s easy for indecision to paralyse us, especially when we desperately want to do the right thing but aren’t quite sure what it is. I think it’s usually as we get moving and take one step that God shows us what’s next, one step at a time. And I’m grateful that he can get us back on track if we do go the wrong way.
Yes, I’m grateful too that God can both lead us forward and lead us back if we get off. It’s easy to get derailed when we want to make the right decision but just can’t seem to decide. Knowing that God has us, no matter what, helps me to move forward. Thanks, Lesley.
Loving this today, Lisa! Amen. 🙂
Thanks, Meghan!
This is such a sweet post! I love reading about God’s work in our creation. Not only does creation reveal Him, but it provides many examples for us to follow. Hebrews 11 is one of my favorite chapters. I just finished writing about my grandmother’s faith- she knew what it was like to trust Jesus as her secure friend. May we all be quick to hear God and quicker to follow Him. Thank you for the visual you provided us with today.
Dear Lord, help us all to act in faith, not fear.
Yes, I love that God gives us SO many examples of his care and faithfulness in nature. He has put his fingerprints on everything around us if we can just stay aware and see. What a beautiful gift that you’ve written about your grandmother’s faith, Erin!
Glad you like EE, as I call her, Lisa. Had the privilege of meeting and interviewing her once. Great, great lady. Oh, and thanks for your advice: It prompted me to write some long overdue thank you notes, and start cleaning out our pantry! Moving here.
Wow–what an honor to have met Elisabeth Elliot! That’s something I’m sure you’ll never forget. Glad the reminder of her words prompted you to send some blessings out into the world. You are definitely on the move, Lynn.
What a blessing to live next to the lake, Lisa. I have wished it, too, that God’s creatures would realize I’m not going to harm them. Yes, it can be so hard to trust. I love this encouragement you give – “But often the best move is just to make one. Just show up. Do the next thing. Trust that God will be beside you, whether to the right or the left.” Love and hugs to you!
I do love living near the lake because we get to see such a variety of God’s creatures here. It’s a small lake, but it’s enough to attract lots of wildlife and lots of life lessons! 🙂 Thanks for your encouragement, Trudy.
God is honored when we move forward in faith – love this line. I know I want to know the full path but am getting better at trusting in only the next step. Just show up and not only is God honored but he will honor our forward movement. Great wisdom, Lisa!
Thanks, Jean. Just showing us has been my mantra the past several years and it has relieved a lot of pressure off of me, and put it on God, who can handle it much better. 🙂 One step at a time we learn, yes?
Love this, Lisa, and the picture is enchanting.
I have to keep moving. If I don’t, it may be too hard to start again, it hurts so much.
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2017/05/your-dying-spouse-313-now-is-all.html
Even the smallest of movements—even the air in and out of our lungs—counts, Andrew. Blessings to you.
Courage is doing it afraid. I love this.
Yes! If I waited until I was unafraid, I’d stay paralyzed. 🙂 I have to do many things afraid. Thanks, Lux.
It’s hard to know what is safe and what isn’t until afterwards. But what a great way to make us realize the way to go!
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
#raralinkup
True, Jodie. Often we can’t see far enough ahead to know what is around the corner. But just this step, then the next, then the next, is enough!
Lisa, this is great! I love thinking about those little mallards (Did you read Make Way for Ducklings to your girls?), but even more, I appreciate the comforting truth that God is not going to let me go too far off course without a correction — this is the answer to the paralysis of indecision!
Yes, Michele, I did read Make Way for Ducklings to my girls. 🙂 Such a delightful book! I saw it somewhere on our shelves just last week (exactly where, I can’t tell you though, ha).
I love the analogy! I tend to get stuck in eddies and forget that movement, any movement, is something that God can use. Stuckness isn’t.
I can freeze up quite easily myself, Anita. Thankfully God pokes and prods me enough (often through other people!) to get me moving again before too long. 🙂
I’ve been far too long playing the victim of decision paralysis… Last week I was prompted through a book I was reading that I couldn’t gain traction without clarity and a plan. So despite still not knowing the right answers, I’m just going to pick one avenue and focus on that. God is good for course correction 🙂 And we have kittens that have yet to trust us but I know it will come in time. God bless Lisa and thanks for the kick in the pants!
Hope you’ve made peace with choosing a path now, Heather! I know it can be difficult, especially the heavier the consequences. But yes, so grateful that God can work through our choices, correcting them as needed. And hoping your kittens will trust you soon too. Life will be sweeter for them when they do. 🙂
Just get moving! Great advice. God loves that we are moving toward him even if it seems like nothing it is something to Him. I was just meeting today with someone from church and I left the meeting feeling like what you described in this post. I need to get moving toward what God is calling me. She is giving me free rein to dream and now I need to do it.
That sounds exciting, Mary! Praying you’ll find the next steps you need to move forward with new plans.
Thank you for this, Lisa. As I look ahead to the summer months, there’s a project I really want to tackle, one I’ve had on the back burner for far too long. I don’t know how I’m going to make it work, but it certainly won’t be by continuing to do nothing! I need to be like your little ducklings, and do the next thing. 🙂
I’ve got to take my own advice, too, Lois. We have a house project that we’ve been needing to tackle forever, and summer would be the best time to do it. One step at a time for both of us, friend! 🙂
I’m often paralyzed by indecision and I hate it. I’ve never really thought of no action as being the wrong action. Could it be sin? Something to ponder today. Thanks for sharing, Lisa. 🙂
I think I grew up with a faulty mindset that doing nothing = safety. But real life teaches us otherwise, yes? Sometimes sitting still makes us sitting ducks. We don’t want to be open to danger because we’re immobilized. 🙂
Lisa, ducks are my favorite animal! I’m glad to read your post today to learn a bit more about them. #coffeeforyourheart
Wish you were here to see our ducklings and goslings. They’re so adorable. But their growth pattern is so quick that they’re grown before you know it. I’m glad our human babies still little much longer. 🙂
May we get moving, indeed. Being stuck is no way to live!
Exactly, Sarah. There have been periods in my life where I have been stuck in a particular area, and it is quite miserable.
Great analogy, Lisa. Too often people freeze in fear or apprehension. The hardest thing about doing anything is taking that first step and the last one. Good reminder to move. God is all about action.
I wasn’t too upset when our dog Lola chased the ducks out of our pool a few years back. They’re mess isn’t as cute as they are…
Yikes—I wouldn’t want ducks in a pool either, Floyd. ha. I can only imagine. They and the geese can really make a mess out of our backyard. 😉
It’s easy to get stuck, isn’t it? And being stuck is different than waiting on the Lord. Thanks for this reminder why staying stuck isn’t an option! Have a blessed weekend, my friend!
Yes, I think it’s important to make that distinction between waiting and being stuck. Because sometimes we can use “waiting” as an excuse to do nothing when really we’re just too scared to move. Thanks, June!
Loved this, Lisa! We can talk about it, dream about it, whine about, and a million other things, yet nothing happens if we simply don’t get moving!
Blessings and smiles,
Lori
Exactly, Lori. I’m a big planner, but planning along doesn’t get the job done. Movement has to occur!
Lisa, this really touched my heart today. With my panic disorder I need to step out and have faith that God is always with me and will always guide my path. Thank you for these lovely and so very blessed reminders!
Life can be so much more difficult to navigate with panic disorder so my compassion is with you, Debbie. May God continue to bless you with what you need to follow the path he has for you!