Please Help!

“If you can’t control your mouth, maybe we should just tape over it!”

I’d had enough of the constant comment coming from this eighth grade boy. I wasn’t prepared, however, for what he begged me to do next.

“Please do it! I’ll get the tape!”

Oh, my! I knew if I even “helped” him tape his mouth I would be in serious trouble. But there he was, handing me the tape dispenser.

“I’m sorry. I can’t help you with this. It’s just not a good idea.”

A few minutes later I turned around to see his mouth securely shut with half the roll of tape… a “do it yourself” project.   

*****

Young children go through a phase when they want to “do it themselves.”  They are learning a new skill, managing a zipper, fumbling with buttons, or tying a shoe. We wait patiently as they struggle and brush our helping hands aside.

When she was two years old, our daughter announced to her grandma who was visiting, “Mommy and Daddy help. Not you!” What she was really saying was, “I haven’t accepted you yet. I’m not sure I want you in the ‘inner circle’ of people that I let help me. I don’t need your help.”

And then there are those who act like they’re helpless. We’ve all tried to physically lift a child who is giving the old “dead weight, drop to the floor” routine. “Help me out here!” we groan. Adults too can play that helpless card. They expect others to do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to their problems.

Sometimes I’m almost too embarrassed to ask for help. Notice I said almost. Each time one of our babies was going to be baptized, one of the fastidious German gals at church offered to clean my house before the out-of-town guests came. I had to swallow my pride, welcome this gift, and let this “perfect housekeeper” tackle what had accumulated during the months when my cumbersome body wouldn't allow me to bend down to clean those hard-to-reach places.

*****

Sometimes I’m too prideful, too embarrassed, too stubborn to ask my Lord Jesus for help. I feel I should give it my best effort before He lends a hand. I like to help myself to everything the world offers for assistance, dumping a whole bucketful of other people's suggestions into my plans. Even when I know something's not a very good idea, I jump in with my own efforts, trying to make it work. If only I didn't treat my Savior as an afterthought, as a last resort when all else fails.

I know I’m really the “dead weight kid” when it comes to my sin and the awful choices I sometimes make in what I do or say or think. There’s nothing I can do to help, as much as I keep trying to make up for my sins. So I might as well just collapse into the arms of my Lord Jesus. And that’s just fine with Him.

We often say to people, “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.” One day I heard someone say, “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me do it.” I can hear the voice of my Lord Jesus telling me the same thing. He has no equal in my "inner circle" of trustworthy helpers. He's the only one that I can always trust to do it right.

He loves to bring me back to life. To a forgiven, joyful life with Him!

Leaving my guilt at the cross,

Christine