As the summer heat lingers in September in Texas, my mind thinks about summer days I spent as a toddler in one of those blue plastic round kiddie pools. The nostalgia puts a smile on my face. I remember giggles and splashes. Family photos captured the fun I spent with my sister during those summer days.

The size of the kiddie pool welcomes only a few to splash around before the pool becomes too crowded. However, the size was perfect for my sister and I. We loved it. And it served the purpose my parents hoped for which was to keep us cool and tire us out. While plastic kiddie pools are great for little humans, have you seen the reaction when someone fills up a kiddie pool for their pet ducks? Ducklings swim around as if the pool has so much to explore. There is room to move and grow for tiny ducklings in the kiddie pool. It is their size. However, fill up the same kiddie pool for two adult ducks and what happens? They possibly get dizzy swimming in tight circles around the perimeter. The plastic kiddie pool places a limit on the ducks. The distance ducks are created for is much more than a kiddie pool. Their webbed feet are designed to swim for hours at different speeds across ponds, lakes, and coastal seas. God created ducks strong, steady, and resilient. A kiddie pool is not the best place for a duck to live in the life it was created for.

This visual has lingered with me for a few weeks. And it is coming into focus what two adult ducks swimming in a kiddie pool represent. When I choose to live in sin and hold tight to idols to satisfy, I look like a dizzy duck lapping a kiddie pool. I do not understand why I am stuck in the same place. And I can grow frustrated. I look around to see others progress and reach further distances. I wear myself out paddling by doing all the ‘right’ things the culture pressures a single woman in her late thirties. Be successful and independent. Lead. Give back. Use your voice and influence. It is exhausting. The good news is God never created me to stay in a kiddie pool and lap myself into exhaustion. God sent Jesus to save me from my sin. Because of Jesus, I am rescued from the confines of sin (kiddie pool) and invited into life without limits (lakes, ponds, coastal seas). After receiving this good news and salvation, why would I choose to live in sin when Jesus offers a better life? I am learning in this refining season obedience requires a lot of dying to self-control, selfish desires, and self-exaltation. I know God wants me to live a full life and flourish for His glory, but sometimes sin lures me back into the kiddie pool to convince me that a life of control and predictability is better. Maybe you can relate to the lie that causes me to lap the kiddie pool: the sin I struggle with is always going to be there so I might as well splash around in the kiddie pool to make the most of it. And it is a complete lie from the enemy who looks for every possible way to steal, kill, and destroy the lives of the children of God.

To step outside the kiddie pool can be scary. To ask God to help you reach new distances requires faith and obedience. But you and I can do it. The love of God casts out any fear that swells in us. I remind myself often that God has me, right here, right now. As I lean into the fullness of life Jesus has given me, I know he is with me every step of the way. The kiddie pool (sin) looks fun maybe for a summer, but what good news that you and I are created for much, much more.

For more check out: John 14:6, John 10:10, Psalm 16:11