There are times in life when what should be obvious isn’t. That’s why it’s good to have God and trustworthy friends to give us in-put. I’ll share a humorous example, but the principle applies to serious situations as well.
At a time when we had two young missionaries from other countries living with us, we would provide an inflatable mattress for our daughter whenever she’d visit overnight. We kept the inflated mattress stored under the bed in one of the downstairs bedrooms. When she came to visit, we’d carry it upstairs, then take it back downstairs when she left.
One of our downstairs beds was an antique 3/4 size bed, requiring custom made mattresses. At this particular point in time, we decided to replace the worn- out mattress with the blow up one. We then ordered another blow- up mattress to have for guests.
After our daughter had spent the night on the new inflatable mattress, I lugged it downstairs, but discovered it was a little higher than the previous one and wouldn’t fit under the bed. I let a little air out, but then it wasn’t firm enough to maneuver into position under the bed. So, I stored it on the side of the bed, against the wall. As I was sharing this with my husband, he said, “Why don’t you just deflate it completely?” (I guess the reason I had never thought of this is because I assumed it would be difficult, but I found that it’s very easy to deflate and inflate.) I laughed and said that was an excellent idea and did exactly that! I found that the deflated mattress even fit easily into the storage bag provided for it!
Later, I got thinking about how often I need God to reveal my sins to me, or a friend to help me look at difficult situations from a different perspective. Sometimes I’m not even aware that I need help. Other times, pride or fear may prevent me from seeking help.
While there are certainly times when independence is good, there are also times when we need to humbly recognize that we need help and ask for it. As I learned in this instance, often two heads are better than one.
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