My daughter has been working on a science fair for the last month. For her project, she decided to test which item biodegrades the fastest: apple core, banana peel, or a cucumber slice. She created three trials for her experiment, and set three plates outside, each with one apple core, one banana peel, and one cucumber slice on it. It’s all been very scientific.
And quite the adventure…
First, after a week of the plates sitting outside, we had some big winds here in California and all three plates ended up in the pool. Needless to say, my daughter had to start her project over. We bought new applies and cored them, new bananas and peeled them, and new cucumbers and sliced them. Once again, she set the items on the plates, and set the plates outside again. A week later, when she went to check on her plates one day to see how the items were biodegrading, all the apple cores were gone. They had completely disappeared. Whether it was raccoons or birds, we don’t know. But, with only two weeks left of her experiment until she had to write down her conclusions, she didn’t have time to start over again.
So she had to improvise.
She had to make do and exclude the apple cores from the analysis.
Though it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, my daughter was disappointed. She’d had her heart sent on her original project idea and she didn’t want to change it.
But, the whole situation ended up being a good life lesson. Because having to shift gears or start over happens a lot in life, right?
Sometimes, we set out to do something and an unexpected event forces us to change course, even though we don’t want to. Or we set a goal and run into a glitch and have to start over. And over.
But with God on our side, even when that happens, all things are possible…
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” –Philippians 4:13
And that’s really good news, because life can be full of bumps and detours, can’t it?
So if you are in a place of starting over or shifting gears, hang in there.
Don’t give up. Give your situation to God. And know that He can make good come out of anything.
“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God…”
–Romans 8:28 (New American Standard Bible)
Whether that something is a science fair experiment or something much bigger.
God can handle the twists and turns of life.
And he can help us handle them too.
What about you? Can you share a time God helped you to start over?
I love your analogy! This makes me laugh since my daughter and I did a little experiment a couple weeks ago putting lemon on an apple slice and nothing on a second slice – to see how the one browned but not the other. Only Pappa wasn’t in on the experiment, which we had left on the table, so when we went to check the apple slices, they were gone! At least we knew [what] had eaten them…
God has helped me to start over so many times. I’m kind of a crabby wife. I don’t mean to be, but I long for more in my marriage (the siren song of so many women). Sometimes I feel hurt and abandoned. I get crabby.
Then sometime later God pricks my heart and brings me to a place of humility and I have to start over. I’m so grateful his mercies are new every morning:
Lam 23:22-23 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
and that God’s strength is so much better than mine.
1 Cor 1:25 For the follishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
recently, the birth of my first baby did not go at all how i expected it would. the following weeks were hard to say the least. i had gone into motherhood with all these expectations of how it would go and when it didn’t happen, i wanted to give up. then it hit me: i have a beautiful, healthy baby boy and here i am complaining because i had a csection and because i couldn’t breastfeed and because i didn’t know how to make him stop crying immediately. i still have my days, but i know that He is in control, not me.