When you face difficulties, don't focus on how big your problems are but focus on your God. He gives you the perseverance to stand up to kite-eating trees.

A few blocks away from the house where I grew up, there was a tree with a kite stuck in it. It was my kite. My pride-and-joy kite. The kite I had saved my paper route money to buy. The kite that was going to fly higher than the birds.

On its maiden voyage to the clouds, it got stuck in that tree—that kite-eating tree. No amount of pulling, twisting, or even waiting for a windstorm dislodged that kite. It was stuck there . . . forever.

I saw it every day on my way to school or the playground. I saw it when I came home. I even think I heard the tree munching on my kite as I walked by—at least it sounded like loud chewing in the wind.

It always reminded me of Charlie Brown. If you are a fan of the Peanuts comic strip as I am, you know that whenever Charlie Brown set out to fly his kite, it always ended up in the kite-eating tree.

It didn't matter how determined Charlie Brown was. He could even be positive that the next time it wouldn't happen again. But no matter what, his kite always ended up in that tree. At one point, Charlie Brown was so frustrated, he didn't even bother trying to fly the kite—he just threw it into the tree.

OBSTACLES GET IN OUR WAY

We all have to deal with our own "kite-eating trees." These are the obstacles that keep getting in the way of our doing what we want or need to do.

For many of us, we try to fly high by eating healthier and getting more exercise. Along the way, we somehow keep falling back into our old habits, and like Charlie Brown, we throw our resolution into the tree and give up.

Other times, we try to do what we understand to be in line with God's will. It could be putting some sin behind us or doing something new as an individual or as a church, like talking more openly about our faith, inviting someone to church, or trying a different outreach method. Along the way, we find ourselves at odds with other people or circumstances or finances . . . or even ourselves. "It's never worked before, it won't work now." "That's not the way we do things." "We can't afford it." Like the kite-eating tree, these issues grab our enthusiasm and cause our lofty hopes and visions never to get off the ground. It's as though we simply throw our kites into the tree and let the tree munch on them.