The Lord's Way

 

Have you ever made what you thought was a good plan? Only to have it fall flat?

This spot near Silver Star, Montana is a site where Lewis and Clark camped.  It is near the convergence of the Jefferson and Bighorn Rivers.  The parties had been separated but Lewis wrote a note telling Clark he was going up the Jefferson and secured it to a green pole where it was sure to be seen.  Clark never found the note and took his men on a treacherous journey up the Bighorn that almost ended in tragedy.  They had to use ropes to pull their dugout canoes up the river on slippery rocks and had extreme difficulties and injuries. 

When they eventually reunited and returned to the spot, they found that the green pole had been cut down by a beaver and the top of the pole as well as the note were long gone, presumably now a part of a dam somewhere in the proximity. 

Sometimes things just don't go as planned.  

There are things we don't account for.  Things that are out of our control.

Illnesses.  Others' agency.  Natural disasters.  Job loss.  

Or even things like beavers that cut down our posts.  

But they didn't just give up and quit.  They made a new plan and kept going.  They would have to make it 50 more miles with the help of Sacajawea before they would gratefully encounter her Shoshone tribe and be able to get horses to assist in their travel. 

The sooner we accept that pitfalls and disappointments are a natural part of this life the easier it will be to rebound and get back on track. 

Eldred G Smith reminded, "So the Lord, as a Kind, Loving Father, gives us experiences, stumbling blocks to stumble on by which we may be strengthened; problems to overcome by which we may be strengthened; trials by which we may grow bigger, stronger; so we may attain the perfection he has planned for us through this life in mortality."

He continued, "I have often said to myself in my younger days, as trials and difficulties came along, "The Lord's way is the best way." As long as conditions are beyond my control, then I leave them up to the Lord. I worry only about those things that are in my control, and those things I try to make better and ask the Lord to help me."