David
The youngster was quite different. The innovator, the outside the box thinker, the fearless adventurer. He looked like the person who had no fear. Who knew no limits. Who drove head first and figured things out as he went along. While there was a little element of that in his youthful nature, the text gives ample amount of evidence to the contrary. The David type is one who is careful, measured, thought out, and risk averse.
How can you say that? The man ran face first with no military experience and no military gear towards a giant who would have torn him limb from limb and fed him to the birds. And sure enough, the giant felt that way too. Let’s dive a little more into who David was.
For starters, when David said he saved his sheep from lions, it was not a bragging thing. Having had to learn to survive in the wild, David had experience dealing with life threatening situations. He had learned to keep cool under tremendous pressure of survival. He also had integrity. Many would let the sheep die at the hands of a lion. David cared about the little as well as the big in his care. It’s safe to assume that he didn’t do this lion fighting deal straight out of the gate. He had a steep learning curve that he practiced, perfected, and rose up to the level of lion defying status over time.
The David type studies, learns, adjusts, meditates, and plans ahead. The whole slingshot skill was not an accident. In those days, it was a great thing of skill to throw a rock not to skip across a lake but to land a target at a distance. If you can land a rock on a lion at a thousand yards out and hurt it, you didn’t have to wrestle it. That is not a military skill, that’s a school of hard knocks skill that can be learned in a good military school as well.
David cultivated his skills. In the face of obstacles, he found solutions. In the face of adversity, he accepted the challenge and ran with it. Furthermore, he had a relationship with God. He knew to trust God to protect him and guide him through his challenges.
In the family setting, the David mindset is what is most effective at leading a home forward. Not all plans come to fruition. Not all dreams come true. The ability to adapt, to adjust, to recalibrate, to rethink, and to assess is of prime importance. The noise and grind of daily living requires us to have moments of solitude to recalibrate and decompress as well as assess and plan forward. Resting on traditions and comforts will get you but so far. Had David not perfected the slingshot hits to minimize the wrestling incidents with lions… instead of taking out a giant with a rock, he’d have to figure how to climb up a giant and wrestle him down.
Prior experience is good. Prior knowing is very valuable. Preparation is awesome. Thinking on your feet, a learned skill, is what makes all the difference when life throws you the unexpected.
to be continued in the next post
