Still yourself

Do not ask the lord to guide your footsteps if you are not willing to move your feet.

I found this quote on my daughter's Facebook page this morning and thought how true that is. So often we want to detour and do things our way. We create our own stumbling blocks.

I have known my hairdresser, Jennifer, since she was a baby. She is a good person, a great mom to a high school senior and fifth grader. She's a hard worker. She has had some hard knocks but has always been resilient and bounced back. Last year she did a lot of soul searching, raised a Christian, she examined several religions and embraced the tenets of Buddhism. She gave up on doing things her way. She quit complaining and began to seek her inner voice. After two former husbands and a couple of Cracker Jack prize boyfriends, she gave up on men.

Saturday, she is getting married. She said, "I wish I had known that giving up was the answer. I am so at peace and so happy."

What I think happened is not that she gave up, but that she gave in to her spirituality, the voice we always hear and often debate with, the one we try to prove wrong. When we are noisy with ourselves, our loved ones, and our enemies, we can't hear the voice of God.

This reminds me of a poem which hangs on my refrigerator as a daily reminder that my way isn't always the right way.

As children bring their broken toys
with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God
because he was my friend.

But then instead of leaving Him
in peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
with ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried,
"How can You be so slow?"
"My child, He said, "what could I do?
You never did let go."
~ Anonymous