31 Days: And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy

Genesis 2:2-3

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Image credit: morguefile.com

May your day be blessed and may you find rest and joy in the presence of the Lord.

This is Day 11 of The Rhythm of Rest series (Write 31 Days challenge).

What I learned from a 2 1/2 year-old about asking for help

“Can you please help me?”

As I bend down, my 2 1/2 year-old niece hands me a lollipop in a plastic wrapper.

It’s my 5 year-old niece’s birthday and the girls and their cousins have just beaten a piñata to pieces, liberating all the lollies onto the concrete slab of the carport. The piñata started out as a large number five covered in a rainbow of coloured paper strips, and ended in a mangle of torn cardboard quickly forgotten in the scramble for sugared treasure.

The lollipop comes from my young niece’s treasure hoard.

Tearing from the top, I peel back the plastic skin and place the glistening lollipop back into her waiting hand.

There’s something precious in her question. She believed and trusted that I was willing and able to give the help that she needed.

It is one of my favourite auntie moments, being asked for help.

And I can’t help but wonder if that’s a little how God feels when I come to him, asking for help and trusting him to answer.

But so often I try to do things on my own. So often I tell myself that I should be able to do something without having to ask for help.

Even when I really need it.

So often I’m that other version of a two year-old: “I can do it myself.”

Despite all evidence to the contrary.

So often I’m afraid that I really am on my own.

“Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”
Isaiah 41:10, NASB

As I was my niece’s helper, so God is my helper.

I don’t need to beg or whine or demand his help. God is my helper, and he is delighted when I trust him to take care of me.