"Relax, relate, release."

The phrase has become so familiar that it's now cliche'.  I remember first hearing it in the early 1990s, when a popular actress on a TV sitcom regularly recited it in her effort to combat stress or fear.

It came to mind this week as my husband and I spent more than an hour trying to convince our 7-year-old daughter that if she would let one of us pull that front tooth dangling by the thinnest thread of gum tissue, she'd be making room for a new tooth to fill the space.

She had her other front tooth pulled a week earlier, without a hint of pain; but this was a different tooth and a different experience, she insisted.  She wasn't sure what to expect, so she was determined to hold onto "the tooth she knew" as long as she could.

As I listened to her reasoning, I was struck by the fact that many of us have the same emotional tug-of-war in our faithwalk.

God asks us to move; we stay put.

God asks us to stay put; we move.

He gives us a gift, calling or responsibility and we insist that we're not ready.

Yet just as I tried to convince my daughter to trust that her parents wouldn't do anything to harm her, God is constantly sending us the same message.  He says in Hebrews that the kind of faith He wants us to have won't necessarily be logical.  He says in Romans
that He will work everything out for our good, if we love Him. 

My daughter finally believed me - after she took numerous deep breaths and allowed her Dad to pull that tooth. She smiled triumphantly as she opened her palm to show me that she had relented and was now ready to see what the tooth fairy had in store.

Imagine the results we could experience if we would rest in the Heavenly Father's arms and release our needs, burdens, fears and desires to Him, instead of routinely releasing them in prayer while continuing to clutch them.     

Just imagine!

This entry is also posted on my www.faithchick.com blog.