Finding A Straight Path

Proverbs 3:5-6 ~ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

I grew up in a country home in Minnesota. From the time I was about 10 years old until I moved out, we had at least one three-wheeler. I spent most of my summers exploring the woods, and zooming around on well established paths. My dad and I had made paths somewhere around the time we first came to own a three-wheeler, and I used them regularly.

My parents recently moved away from this home. Last summer a fairly severe storm came through which caused many trees to fall at their property. Two of my children and I went over there after the storm and began to clean up the mess. As I was cutting up one of the trees that fell near their pole barn, I was reminded that I was standing on a path that was once nearly as beat down as their driveway. I walked a ways into the woods, following a faint memory of where the path used to be. There was no indication anywhere external from my mind that there ever was a path there. Everything had grown up, and it was no longer recognizable.

When we seek to walk the paths of life, it is easier to walk paths that are established and straight. It is so hard at times to walk a path that you don't understand. It is so hard to lean NOT on your own understanding, but to lean ON the understanding of the Lord. But this is what God calls us to do. Acknowledge him in all our ways, leaning on his understanding and not our own, and he WILL make our paths straight.