His Word, Kids/Parenting

Traveling in Life

Recently, I traveled to French Lick, Indiana with some of my loved ones. When mapping out our journey, I found there were 3 routes to choose from. One was a direct route which was shorter in distance, but longer in time. One was a little bit out of the way with longer distance but shorter time. Then there was one in between – medium time and medium distance.

I chose the shorter, more direct route in distance, but longer in time.

This route took us across the winding countryside – through twists and turns, up hills and down hills, and into valleys. We were able to see the gorgeous fall foliage and scenery.

We saw quite a few horse ranches and just as many single-wide trailers. We saw an expansive open pasture with cows grazing lazily.

More than once, Elijah thought we were lost. Despite having failed me before, I had confidence in my GPS and navigation system.

Our destination was a resort-style water park. It wasn’t even visible from the road. It was perched high upon a hill and surrounded by trees and a long, steep, windy driveway. Once it was within our sight, the kiddos got super excited!

When we got to the water park, we discovered there were 2 tube slides and 2 body slides.

Now, I have no problem doing the tube slides – but the body slides are not my favorite. The kiddos did the body slides and tried to take me into the body slide. Eventually, their pleadings got the better of me and I momentarily abandoned my senses. I agreed to go down what I thought was the lesser of two evils, the yellow slide.

I have no idea what the blue slide is like, but I know the kids really enjoyed it. From experience, I will say the yellow slide was enough for me!

Its zips and zags and twists and turns and the rapid descent with the water in my face was enough for me to be assured that I would NOT be trying the blue slide.

As I was rapidly descending, I began to wish I could go backwards – back up to the top – to change my mind. That got me pondering some paths I’ve gone down in life. Many times, I would begin to travel one way or another and I would wish I hadn’t taken this path. But I couldn’t go back, because I couldn’t follow the path back to the beginning perfectly. I wouldn’t have made it to the same place I started.

The only thing I could do in the slide, as in life many times, is to hold on tightly, close my eyes during the really scary parts, and pray for God’s hand of protection over me.

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