Dangerous Road Ahead!!

Mrs. Ruble was a very old lady by the time I came along. She lived up the road from our house and my mother often sent me to check on her or to take her a plate of food, or tell her of some bit of news. I was scared to death of her for no other reason than she was old and had such lifelike pieces of sculpture in her house, I was sure they were real and would get me.

She had lived in her home for a very long time, so long in fact that the roads had been re-routed since her girlhood and were no longer in the same place as they used to be. She had driven the old roads so many years, day in and day out that it was embedded in her brain. When the city changed them, Mrs. Ruble found it hard to change too.

Well, the years advanced and Mrs. Ruble became forgetful and her driving grew more and more erratic and that's when the fun began. See, she was driving the old ways in her brain but the roads were no longer in the same place. Even worse, the original road was straight down the hill while the new road was a round about lane, with an easier incline.

One fine day, Mrs. Ruble set out for the store and to the shock of all concerned, she took off down the old familiar path, bumpity bumping over grassy hillocks at a terrifying speed and angle. Everyone held their breath! Would she make it??? Look out Mrs. Ruble...the old way is not the best way!!

I'm happy to say she made it and we all breathed a bit easier. Family took the keys and she moved away to live with those who could care for her, leaving the neighborhood a safer but more boring place to live.

I've been thinking about her for some reason and how she relates to my own life as a mom, wife, friend, Christian, etc. My mental vehicle goes where I've always allowed it to go, sort of on automatic pilot, and that has to stop. I've allowed myself to get into ruts of my own making and my own thinking....I'm not good enough, I'm not capable, God can't use me there because I don't have any particular talent, who would want me and I'll probably just fail anyway. Dangerous road ahead!!!

No, I need to change and travel along God's path of assurance and love, trusting in Him to do the work and letting him do the driving. I know if He's behind the wheel, we're headed in the right direction!

Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.