Our favorite beach has changed a lot over the years…

Each time we come there are more and more rocks on the shore, making parts of it almost impossible to navigate or pass to reach the water. We had a particularly rough day with the airstream renovation, and each time we go to ‘fix’ or start a project to make this place more liveable, the mess and chaos just grows. I reached my tipping point with it tonight and had to get out and get some fresh air. What better place than this beach! So the boys went down with me and my 6 year old decided that he wanted to clear a path to the water. While the rest of us were sitting there watching the waves across the wide span of rocks, he set out to make his path….one rock at a time. At first I wondered what he was up to this time. He’s always building or tinkering with something, but then I started to really watch him and saw a path start to emerge the longer he kept at it.

He was determined and just kept throwing those rocks out his way left and right, left and right. I’m not entirely sure he thought about what a huge task he was attempting to take on or what it would fully entail. He just knew he had a plan and what it would take to get there, and kept working.

As I watched him I saw a major lesson being illustrated right in front of my eyes. Take our challenges one rock at a time and before we know it, we have moved mountains. I was so inspired by his perseverance and from where I sat I could see the path clearing, so it motivated me to get up and join him. Pretty soon my other son wanted in on the action and quickly after that we had a fully cleared path all the way to the water. To look at the task before starting and asses the work would have been overwhelming, but just jumping in and doing it one rock at a time made it totally doable.

Even more, I love how God puts things in front of us to teach and illustrate the exact thing we need to be reminded of at the time. I also loved how when we returned the next day, that particular spot of the beach was now filled with people playing in the surf – a spot that they could not access before his path was there. His vision quickly became a benefit and useful path everyone else around him.