Growing up, I was always captivated by the pioneer-era. I loved Little House on the Prairie and any books (or show) that was set from the mid-1800s to early 1900s, or before the modern day world began to take shape. Little log cabins, set in a picturesque valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains sounded like pure romance and adventure to me.
My other passion (well, one of them) was to grow up and be a teacher. I think it was the series called Christy that I watched during my early homeschool years that gave me that idea. I barely remember the details (and quite possibly my memory is wrong), but Christy was a teacher that went to a small town to be their teacher. There she found love, adventure, a purpose. Ah. That was what I wanted.
Fast forward twenty-plus years to a few days ago. I’m leading a small group at teen church, asking questions about that day’s message of Psalm 23. The first question went something like this: “How have you seen the Lord lead you and your family’s lives? Give an example.”
We all know this scripture: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1) It’s kind of cliché. Our great-grandmothers have ancient pictures of Jesus with a shepherd’s staff holding a cute sheep with two others on the ground looking up at Him. We made sheep cut-outs in Sunday school and hung them on the wall next to the scripture. But do we really think about that verse? The Lord is my Shepherd. He leads me, guides me, and His leadership is perfect. Is it just a cute cliché or do we actually believe it?
As my turn came to answer the question, I was suddenly reminded of something that I had not thought of in quite awhile. Several years back, I was offered a teaching position in a beautiful Montana town. It was picturesque. The wooden schoolhouse set in the middle of a beautiful field. Looking out the window at the teacher’s desk, all you could see was majestic mountains against the big Montana sky. It was a one-room classroom in a community that still closely held to the age-old simple ways that had long captivated my heart. It was my dream-come true.
I didn’t have long to decide. I needed to pray and make a decision fast. I was confused, to say the least. It was my dream. Yet more than anything I wanted to trust the Lord and His leadership in my life. He could see the beginning to the end. He knew my life and the plans He had for me.
As humans, we tend to want to make our own decisions and decide what is best for us. We know what we want and we think we know how to get it. We have grown up in a world that says, “Follow your dreams! Live for yourself!” And while God did give us a brain to make decisions and we don’t have to have a spiritual encounter giving us an answer for every decision in our life, we are called to live our lives in surrender to Him and trust His plans for us.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. (Prov. 3:5-6)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. (Psalm 32:8)
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. (Isaiah 58:11)
When we trust in the Lord and surrender our dreams and plans to Him, He leads and guides us in His perfect way. We may think we know what is best, but in reality, we are short-sighted and can only see the immediate future. But He sees the beginning to the end. He knows what He has in store for us and what is really best for us.
To end my story, I felt the Lord was leading me to stay in the city I was in. He had something for me where I was. And now I can see it all clearly. Two weeks after the date I would have left to Montana, I met the man I would marry. If I had taken the teaching job, I would not have met him then, and possibly never would have. Yes, the Lord’s leadership called me to lay down my dream, but He had a plan for me that was so much more than I imagined. Looking back, I can see how my Shepherd led me perfectly.
His ways are always perfect. Let Him lead you on this wild and beautiful adventure called life.
Photo Credit Anna Troyer Photography
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