Just enjoy the ride

Sometimes we get so excited about the destination we forget to enjoy the ride. A few years back when our kids were small (okay, maybe for than a few) we traveled through the country to our favorite spot at Alley Springs. Now, it is about a four hour drive from our house, but being married to a truck driver, distance has no meaning. lol As we drove off from home that day we were headed to the river, and oh, what a glorious river it is. Some of our greatest memories are right there in that spot we loved to call our own.

We had a great day and now we're headed for home. We loaded the car and all five kids were in. Five tired and cranky kids that is. As my husband is getting on the road he says, "I think we will take a different way home." Now, my husband, the truck driver, can get you from point A to point B a thousand different ways and never get lost!!

Of course once on the road everyone has to go to the bathroom and get a drink, which in turn will cause another stop, but we were off and soon we started not feeling so good. See, I get car sick along with two of our other kids. Are you starting to get the picture? Yea, it was not a fun ride home. In fact, everyone was getting sick. This road we were on was like a roller coaster that never ended! It was like you were in one curve the whole ride home. I just kept thinking, "Lord, we gotta get out of this curve at some point!" Even my husband started wondering what in the world he had done.

All I wanted right then was a straight road in front of me. No curves. No hills. No pit stops. Just one straight road taking me home. Sound familiar? So many times we want the easy way home. We want to take the route that doesn't take long. The one we are familiar with.

Listen to this verse I found today. Ecclesiastes 7:13 "Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what he has made crooked?"

I had to ponder over this and it is meaning, God is sovereign. His ways are higher. We shouldn't avoid His purposes and ways. But trust Him. Believe that the route before us is for our benefit. Would God steer us in the wrong direction? I should be able to trust Him through the curve, in the valley of the hill, and along all those pit stops. Sometimes I simply forget to look out the window at before me.

Ever take a route somewhere and you find where all those curves had once been are now gone? Everything has changed. The road that you were used to has now changed.  They fixed the road and took out all the curves. Made it easier for travel. Now, we might get a whole new view from this perspective, but I find myself missing all that was there before.  

We need to just slow down and enjoy the scenery. Take a stop now and then. Pick some flowers. Ask another along for the ride. I always seem to concentrate on getting home, but there is much to do before we reach our destination. Like enjoy the ride!!