On yesterday I was reminded to wait on God and align myself with His perfect will. As my younger brother and I were walking in the woods near his home. I told him that I wanted to walk down to the lake behind his property. The lake was sparkling and so beautiful and seemed to be calling for me to take a closer look. My brother then insisted that we walk over to the floating dock at the other side of lake instead. No! I again insisted on going to the lake behind his property. After going back and forth with him until he broke and gave in to my request.

Once he gave in to my wish, I worried. Oh boy, what have I done? Just a little background information: my younger brother is a marine and an outdoors man. He instructed me to step in his footsteps. Well, (Ms. Smart Alec…me) I wanted to know why I need to step in his footsteps. His response was simple, “You’re suppose to do that when you are out in the fields, so I use the same concept in the woods. Come on, just follow my footsteps and keep your head down.” He further explained that in the service they were told to step in the person’s footsteps ahead of you in case there is a landmine. In the case of following the leader’s footsteps while walking in the woods he said there may be a camouflaged snake, and if the snake bites the first person, it won’t bite the second. That’s all the explanation I needed.”Oh Lord!” I cried out. I was concerned that maybe there was a snake that he had seen earlier with my boys and was trying to protect me from it or from one of the coyotes he said he heard in the area the night before or a creepy dead animal he was trying to keep me from seeing!

I rethought the entire thing, but we kept moving towards the part of the lake that had piqued my interest. While walking, I thought to myself, this is what happens with us and God many times. I shared my thoughts with my brother that God always knows what’s best for us and He knows what lies ahead just as my brother knows the areas around his home and what possibly lies ahead. God knows that if He gives in to our constant badgering and insistent prayers for our own will to be fulfilled, honoring that request is not His perfect will and He has a much better plan for us. He knows that there may be something unfavorable that he will have to shield us from like a bumps, bruises or heartaches. He tells us, “Okay, this is not my perfect will for you my child, but since you are so stubborn and thick headed and focusing on what you want, I’m going to give you what you keep asking Me for even though I have something else much better in store for you”. I imagine He would tell us, “Okay, come on then, let’s go. I will give you what you want. Step in my footsteps and keep your head down”.

The Holy Spirit led me about a week ago to the scripture about the Israelites who were complaining and being persistent about having a king like every other nation instead of having God as their only king and leader (I Samuel 8-15). God did not want them to have a king because He wanted to be their leader, and He made this known to them through Samuel, His prophet. However, the Children of Israel were not hearing that. They insisted on having a king. God gave them what they wanted in King Saul, but there were consequences to pay. King Saul was a disobedient disaster. God still loved the children of Israel and they were still His children, but they did not trust that God could lead them. Their desire for a king was more important than Gods will and they were willing to have their sons put on the front lines to fight, have their men, women and donkeys overworked, be enslaved themselves and have a tenth of their sheep taken. They definitely did not experience God’s best.

The same is true for us today. We have to trust that our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us and we should only desire His perfect plan and will for our lives and be content with Him as our leader and king. “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….”(Matthew 6:9-10) Lord let your perfect will be done in our lives. Align our will with Your will and lead and guide us with Your Spirit into all truth.

By the way, my brother did not want to go to the part of the lake behind his home because he said the other side of the lake by the dock was more scenic. Nothing more than that. Smh (Shaking my head) I really overthought that thing with the snakes, coyotes, and creepy dead animals. And he was right, the lake was more beautiful by the floating dock.