Doing pull-upsby 파란백조

These days, my kids’ afternoon schedule is fixed.

First, they pull out the weeds in the vegetable garden that was given to us, water the garden, and check the growth of the vegetables.

Then, they play on the school playground.

At the playground, there are swings, seesaws, slides, and pull-up bars.

They are the playground staples which never change for kids.

Even though I don’t know who invented them, the inventions were good ideas.

Now, after playing on the swings and going down the slides for a long time, the time has come to do pull ups.

It seems as though the kids are not yet strong enough to do pull-ups; they are able to hang on the bars, but are not able to do pull-ups.

After seeing how her older sisters did it, my three-year-old--the youngest child--is now trying with all her might to do a pull-up. When I hold her bottom and push her up, the feeling of accomplishment shows all over her face.

As I continually push my first, second, and third child all the way to the top bars, my arms begin to hurt and my energy starts running out.

Nevertheless, my kids are pestering me to push them more and more.

My children’s responsibility is to hold the bar with their arms, and my responsibility is to hold their bottoms and legs and push them up to the bars.

As I am doing this, I suddenly think about myself and Heaven.

‘When I am not able to climb up to the top, the Lord lifts me up like this so that I can go up.’

I realize about the Lord 0.000001%, the Lord who is busy and has nearly run out of strength to help not only one person but also tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people--me, us, and all the people who are in difficulties.

We cannot always expect the Lord to hold us up.

We, ourselves, must pull ourselves up with our own strength.

We must climb up, clenching our teeth.

If that exhausts us, the Lord will help us again.

In order to lighten the Lord’s burden, I shall build up my strength and climb up by myself.

If I could help my other brothers and sisters as well, that would be the frosting on the cake.

There is the one who helps us to climb up even today.

I will make up my mind to build up the stamina of love for him and to make my flesh and bones strong.

Thank you, Lord.

As I think on the way home, ‘Ah, I have to do this again tomorrow,’ I become more thankful to my Lord. That love that does not let us go forever lights up my heart like today’s bright evening.