A Path Made Straight

When I read these verses a few weeks ago, they fairly leapt off the page at me.

“So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.”

Oh, this is what my heart longs to hear every evening, as I lie in bed, usually hashing over the days’ events, my body weak, my will crumbling in the light of a disappointing day. It is a gentle whisper from a Father who never grows weary of my daily failings, but instead sends encouragement through His word to start anew with the morning, to receive a second chance.

“Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.”

I'm coming to an understanding that to truly lead my children, I must daily mark out a path for them to follow. And this must mean that I walk in an upright fashion, carving out an example for them in obedience, honor, faith, patience, and love. No longer can I throw my hands into the air in astonishment at a disrespectful tone or a disobedient action. Though the astonishment has gone, the regret lingers, as I trace back through the day and see my own actions in a new light.

Beloved, keep your tongue…

It slices, it dices, it hurts. The first curve in my path.

Beloved, slow your anger...

It burns, it melts, it hurts. The second curve.

Beloved, lead in love...

I'm impatient, yet immovable, I hurt. The dizziness brought on by the winding path begins to make us sway, and we topple in a heap. Now no one is moving along the path, and I have not "led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love," nor have I become to them as "one who eases the yokes on their jaws, bending down to them and feeding them." Hosea 11:4

My grip is weak. On my own, it cannot be done. I acknowledge that I am my children's earthly example of walking in a straight path, and then I buckle under the weight of that statement.
But listen:

"Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths." Psalm 3:5-6

Walk. And walk in the knowledge that He directs my paths. He will not reach out and pull it straight, but He is on the other end, His grip tight when mine fails, His voice patient when I am impatient, His eyes loving when mine are not. A grace, yes, and it comes unbidden; humbling me to receive it when I am grudging in giving it myself.

So I flesh it out, taking the first step onto a path I have made impassable. Kicking aside the stones I have allowed to fall in my hardness, leveling the ground I have too long abandoned to despair.

It is a leap into a refining; the first step the biggest, the following steps the hardest. Regardless, it is the commitment to the path that begins the journey, and there is where you find me now.

And so, though I still pray for “joy in the morning”, and find my greatest joy in training up my children in the Lord with my husband, I change the name of my little place here to “A Path Made Straight”. For so I long to be.

Won’t you join me in marking out a straight path? Whether it is little chicks gathered in your wake or fellow wanderers you seek to lead, come mark a path with me, as we pray together for the grace to make it straight.

My heartfelt thanks to Debi from Just As I Am for the beautiful, simple banner she created for me. She is a sweet, humble spirit, and though thanks are not what she is seeking, I do give them, from a grateful heart.