Anybody Seen My Flip-Flops?

By Missey Butler
Guest Writer

CBN.com --Have you ever found yourself stuck in the middle of indecision? You go to great lengths to weigh all the pros and cons, you painstakingly view every angle of the matter, you even consult your daily consumer’s buying guide, and still, you can’t seem to make a qualitative decision!

Sometimes we sit on the fence so long that we end up making the wrong choice by making no choice. The book of James describes this predicament in chapter 1 verse 8: “A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways.”

God truly understands our fickle nature. He can even be very creative in helping us whenever we find ourselves trapped in the throws of do I or don’t I?

Just the other morning, He used my little wire-haired terrier, Ivan, to assist me in making a much needed choice. I have these favorite old yellow flip-flops that I dearly love. Every summer season I would unpack them from winter storage and slide them comfortably between my wiggly toes, signaling that summer had officially arrived.

As I glanced down at my tootsies, I happened to noticed that my “tattered thongs” did seem to be a little faded and worn out -- the results of many fast trots through piping hot sand and long strolls on local beachfront boardwalks.

Against my better judgment, I decided to keep them for one more season. The sentimental me won the toss over the better sense me that kept thinking, “Perhaps they’ve become somewhat hazardous, so I’d better play it safe and throw them out.”

Later that afternoon, I decided to take myself and a tall glass of cold lemonade out on the back porch for a brief moment of R and R. As I stepped out and looked across the lawn, ‘what to my wandering eyes should appear?’…MY YELLOW FLIP-FLOPS TORN HITHER AND THERE!

In the blur of the moment, all I could see was a backyard littered with tiny, yellow foam rubber bits strewn everywhere! Ivan “the terrible” had struck; he had chewed them to pieces! I looked around for the little buzzard. Then I saw him sheepishly hiding under the hammock with one piece of yellow foam stuck to his upper lip. He looked so funny that I burst out laughing while shaking my finger at him attempting to reprimand the naughty little guy.

As I picked him up and looked into those brown button eyes, I thought to myself, my small friend here has probably unknowingly saved me from making a very foolish choice. Yep, I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that our God has many forms of angels. This one happens to be a white, furry, nubby-tailed, mischievous little terrier!

Later that evening, while lying in my hammock under a canopy of a thousand stars, I thought about the faithfulness of God, of how He promises to keep even our feet from stumbling (in my case, literally) and make our crooked paths straight when we choose to trust His ways above our own ways. What a wonderful and caring God we serve!

Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.

Proverbs 23:3

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight.

Isaiah 45:2

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