A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy and the rock was very large). When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn't roll it up and over the little wall.

Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, and shoved; but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy's father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy's father.

Gently but firmly he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had available?" Defeated, the boy sobbed back, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!" "No, son," corrected the father kindly. "You didn't use all the strength you had. You didn't ask me." With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

In our sandbox of life, we come across boulders of despair, rocks of frustration, and mountains of faith challenging events that seek to defeat us and cast us down. The greatest blessing in being a child of God is to know that we have a Father who cares for us and will help us in our daily struggles. There is nothing that we can find in life that—with God's help—we cannot overcome.

We find this first in Paul's letter to Corinth when he wrote, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13) The important key in this verse is not to think that we can overcome temptation by ourselves, but that our Father will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we (me and God) can handle. The Father will do his part and we, as trusting children, will do our part.

Again, Paul writes in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Paul says in verses 11 and 12 that he has seen in life that the Father will take care of him in whatever state he may find himself - whether abased or abounding or hungry or full. Again, we find that "all things" is based upon what can be done with the strength of myself and Christ.

The great chapter of victory found in Romans 8 declares, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Take time to read the whole chapter and see how Paul declares the victory found in being a child of God. What can separate us from the love of the Father? "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (v. 37). With God's power, what can we not accomplish?

Life can be filled with many boulders and difficulties. The greatest of all has been satisfied with the blood of Jesus Christ. The Father took that burden away and now we have salvation by His love. That act of love continues to those who are His children and who use all their strength to overcome. That strength is found in the faith of the child and the power of the Father.