If you are familiar with the Gospel Blog, then you may remember that I have the opportunity to work with kids with various disabilities, and this column is to share the lessons I have learned from those kids.

One particular 8-year-old boy, let’s just call him Robby, is unable to walk (or even take steps) unless he is in his “gait trainer” which is a device that supports his trunk and has a sling under him so he cannot fall. For the last 15 minutes of each physical therapy session, I get him into the gait trainer, and we work on getting him to take steps or push with his legs. 

He is successful with stepping about 5 percent of the time—unless the drum set is turned on.

Drum set?

You see, he has a toy drum set that plays music and makes animal sounds when the drums are touched. This drum set is zip-tied to his gait trainer. If it is turned on, he is successful only about 2 percent of the time.

As you can imagine, I hate the drum set, but he loves it. He enjoys the sounds the drum set makes on his command, and I can’t stand that it distracts him from the work we are trying to do. (You are probably thinking, Brother P., why not just leave the thing off?) Good question, but the answer is a little too complicated to describe in a blog article. But it suffices to say that…a lesson is coming. 

Do you have any distractions that make you less successful? 

I have heard many people say they don’t have enough time in the day to read their scriptures, but yet I also notice that many find themselves having to put reminders on their watch or device to limit their screen time.

Wouldn’t it be something if we had to have an app that reminded us that we were in God’s Word for too long because our desire for it was so great?

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” (1 Timothy 4:13)

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.