"We Looked Like Giants"

It's really different reading the Bible when you're older, because when you get to those classic kids stories, you start to pick up on things that you didn't quite grasp when you were five. Take David and Goliath, for example...

David was the youngest of Jesse's sons and almost didn't even make the cut when Samuel went to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king because he was tending sheep. The rest is in every children's Bible I've ever seen and is probably told to five-year-olds all over the world. No one could slay the 9' tall giant, and here's little David, probably half his size, walking up with five little stones talking smack about the big man.

But that's not what caught my attention this time around. It's what David says when someone looks down on him for being "only a boy."

But David said to Saul, 'Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I sized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

-- 1 Samuel 17:34-37a

When David was told how inadequate he was, he turned right around and focused on the "small" victories that no one would ever think about without actually being in his shoes. We all have to face our giants, and it's really easy to be overwhelmed when we've got some big, nasty, nine-foot-tall man stuck in our way.

Especially when he's trying to kill us.

But when we focus on the things that we've been through, things get easier. So the next time you have to face your next giant, think about the smaller battles you've overcome. After fighting lions and bears, maybe a nine-foot-man isn't so bad after all.