You're the Daddy, Fix It!

When my middle son, Ryan, was a little boy (he will be 27 this month - gee, I'm getting old!), he had a little toy pony that somehow got one of its legs broken off. He brought the broken leg and the pony to me. As I held the two pieces in my hands, I asked him what he wanted me to do. He said, "Fix it.” I looked at the two pieces again, and declared my inability to fix his toy. Ryan looked at me and insisted: “You’re the daddy – fix it!”

Despite my great love for my son and my desire to satisfy all of his needs, there are some things I simply cannot do – there is a limit to my ability and power – even if I am the daddy.

My son learned an important lesson that day. There are some things in life that cannot be fixed or changed - no matter how big our desire is or how much we pray? A failure to understand that important truth will lead to much frustration and heartache. We often spend a good deal of our prayer time asking God to deliver us, when we should be asking for wisdom to deal effectively with a circumstance or situation that’s not going away.

Accept what you cannot change. That is not admitting failure or accepting defeat; it is accepting reality. God has nowhere promised us life without struggles and disappointments. As a matter of fact, He seems to suggest that we should expect problems (Cf. James 1:2-8). It is not that God cannot “fix” all the broken things in our lives, but that He often chooses not to do so – and it’s for our own good. As someone has said, “Were it not for the rocks, the brook would lose its song.”

God allows some things to go “unfixed” because He is interested in building our characters into the image of Christ, and such a desire cannot be satisfied without trials. Patience and perseverance are essential qualities for success – the Big Life, but they can only be developed in the dark and difficult moments of life. Instead of expecting God to remove or “fix” the broken things in our life, perhaps it would be better if we prayed for wisdom to effectively use those trials to improve our characters and increase our strength. Certainly, we should take our needs before God’s throne, but we trust Him to do what is best for us and His plan for our life.