10 Tips: How Not to Trip

Find yourself continually getting your feet tangled up? Is the terrain rough? Are you adequately picking up your feet? Or maybe it’s just the wrong road. Here are 10 tips on how not to trip. (A homeschool analogy from the track.)

1. Walk humbly (Micah 6:8).

It is when we get too high and cannot clearly see the path ahead of us that we are more likely to trip.

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2. Don’t expect perfection. 

Perfectionists tend to walk a tightrope making it all too easy to trip.

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3. Don’t try to walk in lockstep with someone else.

Following someone else’s pattern is tough. We all have different strides.

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4. Be yourself.

You know how you’d love to be So-and-so? Well guess what, you can never be a better So-and-so than she can be. And it is all too easy to trip when you are not being yourself.

On the other hand, what those around you really need is simply you.

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5. Don’t jump the hedge.

The hedges God puts around us are there for a reason. Your hedge probably won’t look like my hedge and vice versa. We are different, have different backgrounds, and different temptations. We don’t really understand in advance just what IS over the hedge. When we jump the hedge, we usually trip — big time.

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6. Don’t make someone else trip.

Remember the Mary Decker/Zola Budd race from the 1984 Olympics? Tripping someone else costs. And in our case, the consequences are immeasurable (Matthew 18:6).

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7. Don’t walk backward.

Pilgrim’s digress starts one small backward step at a time. You can’t see what you are stepping into when you are walking backward. Trip? Inevitable.

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8. Don’t think YOU won’t trip.

Let him that thinks he stands take heed (1 Corinthians 10:12).

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9. Don’t stay tripped.

When you do trip, get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the race (2 Corinthians 7:10).

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10. Extend mercy.

Those who give mercy are given mercy (Matthew 5:7) — even when they trip.

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Bonus tip:

Keep your eyes on the finish line.

Don’t Miss a Thing:

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