My daughter and I have this code word when one of us upset or discouraged. The other will say “purple turkeys.” It never fails to make us laugh and break the down moment. (And special thanks to her 6th grade, Ms. Ward, teacher for this wonderful tool.)

Now I really believe God has the best sense of humor (how could He not since He created it, right?). One day last week, my daughter and I were on our way home. This route I take is hilly and beautiful. We often see a fair amount of wildlife on our way too.

Well, this particular day, my daughter pointed out these two large birds in a tree. They had to be about 3 to 4 stories up this tree. I thought maybe they were vultures or something similar. But my daughter, who is a wild life aficionado, said they were turkeys. (No they weren’t purple.)

I asked her how that was possible. Turkey’s fly a little but not that high and certainly not easily. She told me they go from one branch to another.

My quirky brain immediately made a connection to our lives as children of God and as spiritually mismatched spouses. I even said to her, “That’s a blog post!” She promptly laughed at me.

So, how do two turkeys in a tree relate to our spiritual and marriage walks? When I saw those two birds, my first thought was that it was impossible for them to get that high, yet there they sat as happy as two large gangly birds could be.

Don't’ we do that in our lives and in our marriages? We see the big picture of whatever challenge we face, whether it’s a calling, a trial, or spouse’s staunch unbelief and we think it’s just not possible to get from where we are to where we’d like or want to be. Yes, we’re looking at it from our own power but it’s more than that.

We’re also only seeing on possibility. Like the turkey’s, I only saw the distance from the ground to their lofty perch. My daughter pointed out the steps in between.

That’s it! That’s what clicked. God knows the big picture and we may have an idea of what that is (like our spouses coming to faith), but there are steps to take and branches to climb, one by one, to reach that goal. We can’t bypass them. Like the turkeys, we’d fail if we tried to reach that end goal without following God along the steps to the branches in between.

Our biggest hindrance is our impatience. So let’s be like the turkeys and look for the where God is working to reach that goal. Then we can join Him on what I’m sure will be the most amazing and rewarding journey we can ever take.

Praying and believing,
Dineen