12788_aOur youngest granddaughter, Lucy Joy, just turned one! For the month preceding her birthday, Lucy was mostly crawling, taking a few steps from couch to table, or letting you take her hands and lead her, toddling around with great delight.

It is always fun to watch her, with smiling face and outstretched arms, as she takes a few steps . . . then tumbles down and finishes getting where she wants to go with her fast-paced crawl. But something happened as she came within days of turning one. Walking replaced crawling as her preferred mode of movement. When she tumbles, she gets up, steadies herself, and starts to walk again—she doesn’t want to crawl.

As an adult, there are very few times I would choose to crawl instead of walk. It would take a specific situation with no other alternative. Walking becomes the usual means of mobility for nearly everyone by around age one.

That’s how our spiritual walk should be too. As new believers, we are like toddlers crawling; but as we grow, we begin to walk and shouldn’t have the desire to spiritually crawl instead.

How is your spiritual gait? If you find you aren’t steady or sure-footed, go back to the basics of daily reading His Word, praying with a worshipful heart and listening ear, being an active part of your church family, and sharing the hope and good news of salvation with others who need to hear. If we all would do these things, we could have a spiritual walk-a-thon that would change the world. We might even trade in our walking shoes for running shoes!

“Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10 NASB).