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b'In kindergarten, I owned a pair of sturdy brown shoes with thick, black shoelaces. My mom often insisted I wear them, but I hated them. I thought they were hideous and felt embarrassed to wear them. They also did not fit me well. More than once, I was enjoying the playground swings, pumping to swing higher and higher, only to witness those shoes slip off my feet and soar through the air. That brought on more embarrassment, of course. Still, occasionally my mom would pull out that pair of shoes and encourage me to wear them.\\nOne summer day, my brother and I took a walk in the woods after a rainstorm. We played near a pond where the soaked dirt had turned into muddy soup. Another downpour began, and we hurried home. In our rush, one of those despised heavy shoes\\u2014almost the color of the soil\\u2014slipped into the muck. The soggy mud quickly swallowed it, and in the rain I didn\\u2019t stop to retrieve it. I walked home with one bare foot and one (now useless) shoe. I secretly rejoiced that I could finally rid myself of that loathsome footwear.\\nThose ugly, ill-fitting shoes remind me of something else we should throw off. Once we come to live in Christ and receive forgiveness for our sins, God calls usto live in His love and to cast off the habits and distractions that prevent us from faithfully following Him. Jesus Christ died and rose again so that we could befree from the power of sin. He helps us throw off the sin that entangles us and everything that hinders us from running in His good ways. Those attitudes and behaviors don\\u2019t fit us anymore once we have become God\\u2019s children. Instead, we can clothe ourselves with Christ, who helps us honor Him with our lives and reflect His love to others as we run in His good ways. \\u2022 Allison Wilson Lee\\n\\u2022 Is there a sin in your life that God is inviting you to throw off? How is it possible for us to turn away from sin and run in God\\u2019s good ways instead? (Hebrews 12:1-3) \\n\\u2022 According to Colossians 3:12-17, how does God see us once we\\u2019ve put our trust in Jesus? What does God call us to clothe ourselves with? \\n\\u2026let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1 (NLT)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nPs.20'