Myth: God never gives us more than we can handle.
I have been considering this more and more over the past few weeks in light of the new therapy that we are starting with Andrew. Nowhere in the Bible does it say God never gives us more than we can handle. In fact, I think the opposite is true. God routinely gives us more than we can handle! That requires us to go to Him for the necessary support.
In our new therapy, the guide (mom/dad) is suppose to present activities that are slightly above the competence of the apprentice (child.) In doing this it invites the child to go and seek help and assistance. These activities are not suppose to be extremely difficult; just outside the zone of proximal development. Or we are asked to do a task with our child that is somewhat unpleasant to get them out of their comfort zone. During this time, the goal is NOT to finish the task and we are not to MAKE him do it. The goal is to have the child to eventually want to apprentice the parent. The goal is relationship and this apprenticeship is a key deficit in autism. Much therapy in the autism world is spent on teaching skills. A child with a high IQ and high functioning autism can make it though Harvard being taught skills because life until the 'real world' is static. LIFE however, is dynamic outside the school environment. We need to learn to learn, to apprentice, to develop relationships and to trust!
God is the same way. He doesn't cause trials but he allows them. He has a plan and a purpose to prosper us however he is not concerned with the outcome as much as the relationship. I believe God allows trials for many reasons. He may want us to be able to help and understand others who will be in a similar situation in the future. Or perhaps he wants to put certain people in our path or to soften our hearts to someone. Maybe he is going to jump start you on a new path for life. Above all though, He wants to spend TIME with you. He wants to BE with you. And because we live in a fallen world, He knows there will be trials, so he designs to use them for His glory and His good and to call people to Himself. But he will not make you come to Him. The decision has to be your own. But God desires to spend time with His creation...and He loves you like crazy!
4 comments:
I love it. We use the master/apprentice thing around here ALL of the time.... and I never thought of being an apprentice to God, although He IS my Master. Hmm. Good reading on the eve of my back to work dr. appt. :)
I find that many RDI principles can have a spiritual application as well, making it even richer for those of us who believe. Just recently in my ladies Bible study, we read a section from a book that really paralleled ZPD. I was so excited, but the meaning was a little lost on the other ladies who had no idea what I was talking about. : )
The other night I explained to our Sunday night group how God scaffolds us. And, when you have two people at different stages of their walk with Him trying to connect, He can scaffold that interaction too if we let him . . . LOL
Yep, God gives me more than I can handle quite frequently. It's a good reminder for me that *I* am not God, He is. It reminds me that I need Him. If He never gave me more than I could handle, why would I ever think I should Get to know Him or rely on Him for anything? It's a good thing when God reminds is that He's God and we're not, because He's a much better God than I would ever be!!!
I love the word picture of God putting challenges/reminders just beyond the edge of our individual competency. God never gives us more than we can handle WITH HIM being our Guide and Master and Lord, but He gives us much more than we could ever handle without Him!!!
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