Ballerina

"I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?" Psalm 121:1

When television coverage of the Winter Olympics brought visions of twirling, whirling ice skaters into our home, we had two diminutive skaters in our living room. Spin after spin catapulted them into tangled heaps of arms and legs on the floor. Finally, my five-year-old asked in exasperation, "Mommy, how do they spin so fast?"

I tried to explain a technique learned many years ago when I was the ballerina-to-be - the technique of spotting. Start by focusing your sight on a fixed spot and with each rapid turn of the head, return your gaze to the same place. No dramatic improvement resulted form my little ballerina's initial efforts as she began trying this technique. Spotting does not come naturally at any age. She and her sister continued to look like they were playing a musical game of Twister, ending in the same heap on the floor. But slowly, ever so slowly, spotting took effect. Her turns were more controlled, she retained her balance and before long she was trying to explain spotting to her little sister.

Spotting takes practice, but it works. And it's no different from grownups. On what do we set our sights? Are we spotting on career moves, relationships, things? What occupies our minds as we wake in the morning or creeps in unsolicited to our thoughts as we close our eyes at the end of the day? Our uninvited thoughts and recurring worries are probably a good indicator of what we're using to spot.

The psalmist wrote, "I lift up my eyes . . ." (vs 1). He knew about spotting, even if He didn't call it that. He knew where to set His sights. Only one thing sis worthy of our practiced focus, and only one thing will enable us to maintain balance. When my head is spinning and my world is turning too fast, I can spot on One whose power is greater than mine, One who never loses his balance.

By Debra Klingsporn, taken from "Women's Daily Devotional Bible 2"