当我还是小女孩时，母亲将她孩提时心爱的一本儿童读物拿给我看，好帮助我阅读。我特别喜欢当中的一个故事，但没有想到这个故事多年后，竟带给我极深远的影响。
那是关于一个小男孩的故事。小男孩拿着一支小铲子，试图清除家门前又深又厚的新雪。一位男士伫立在旁，并观察了好一会儿，最后开口问道：「小朋友呀，你那么小，怎么可能完成这么艰钜的任务呢？」小男孩抬起头，很有信心地回答：「我一点一点地挖，就可以完成呀！」回答完后，又埋头继续铲雪。

在一次的挫败中，上帝用这个故事唤醒了我。我记得很清楚，我内在的「成人」如此嘲笑我内心弱小的「孩童」说：「你那么无能，怎么可能爬上这么高大的一座山呢？」此时，小男孩的回答成了我的回答：「我一步一步地爬，就可以爬到呀！」而我也靠着上帝，在许多小小的得胜之后，真的爬上了那座高山。

以色列进入应许之地前，遇到了重重难关，看似无法克服；然而，上帝并没有要他们一次就过关斩将。

「滴水穿石」乃是得胜的秘诀。JEY


主不是一年一年，
也不是一天一天；
祂总是一步一步，
带领我日日向前。Ryberg


脚不停步，上帝就会助你爬上高山。
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Little By Little!

March 2, 2005


Read:
Exodus 23:20-33


Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. —Exodus 23:30


Bible In One Year: Deuteronomy 7-9

When I was a little girl, my mother gave me her prized "reader" to help me learn, just as it had helped her years earlier. I loved one particular story, never dreaming how much it would affect me years later.

It was about a little boy with a small shovel. He was trying to clear a pathway through deep, new-fallen snow in front of his house. A man paused to observe the child's enormous task. "Little boy," he inquired, "how can someone as small as you expect to finish a task as big as this?" The boy looked up and replied confidently, "Little by little, that's how!" And he continued shoveling.

God awakened in me the seed of that story at a time when I was recovering from a breakdown. I remember how my "adult" self taunted the weak "child" within me: "How can someone as inadequate as you expect to surmount so great a mountain as this?" That little boy's reply became my reply: "Little by little, that's how!" And I did overcome—by depending on God. But it was one small victory after another.

The obstacles facing Israel as they considered claiming the land God had promised them must have seemed insurmountable. But He didn't ask them to do it all at once.

"Little by little" is the strategy for victory. —Joanie Yoder


He does not lead me year by year,
Nor even day by day;
But step by step my path unfolds—
My Lord directs my way. —Ryberg

Trust God to move your mountain, but keep on climbing.