The property my wife, Carmen, and I own was developed just a couple of years ago. If you had been standing at the site of our home a few summers ago, you would be standing in a small forest of trees.
Most of the trees have been cleared out with the exception of some that circle around the property. But there are still some large tree roots buried in the ground. There are also several rough spots where the lawn needs to be smoothed over.
Someday we hope to have all the roots removed and all the rough spots smoothed over, but in the meantime, there is still plenty of grass that needs mowing.
With all the obstacles I have mentioned, driving a riding lawnmower has certainly been an adventure on our property. It has particularly been an adventure for me because I’ve never really had a lawn our size to mow.
So from the very start, I had to learn the basics of operating a riding lawnmower before I did anything. I also had to learn the proper settings to maneuver around the rough terrain of our yard.
I thought after going through my first summer last year that I had mastered the art of battling our lawn. But about three weeks ago, I realized I still had plenty to learn.
I was riding along the slope of our yard where it meets the road. As I was driving through a gap, I must have jarred something loose in the steering.
From that point on, the lawnmower became very difficult to steer. I did manage to get most of the lawn mowed before the steering became impossible to use. As I was finishing up, I really could not turn left or right. So it was everything I could do just to get the mower back in my garage.
Knowing that I am not a mechanic of any kind, I had a real problem that I needed to solve.
My first plan was to just use my push mower. But then I remembered it needed repair work, too, as the gas tank had fallen off last year.
My next plan was to go on Facebook and ask everyone if they could refer me to a good lawnmower repairman. The only response I got was my friend Jonathan telling me to go buy a goat.
My third plan was to search through the Yellow Pages for a local business. I called a couple of different places, but the first one said it would cost $60 just to have someone look at it before they even did any work. The other place said they were backed up for four weeks with repairs.
So after Plans A, B and C failed me, I turned to the old faithful plan of asking my family and in-laws for help.
Luckily, our family friend, Donnie, came to the rescue and discovered the problem. Thanks to his help, we are now in the process of getting the mower repaired. Hopefully I will be back out there mowing the obstacle course I call “my yard” in no time.
But during this process of getting my lawnmower repaired, I tried every which way to solve the problem on my own before I turned to my family, which is what I probably should have done from the start.
This is a lot like the way we try to solve all the big problems we come across in life. We feel we can tackle all of life’s obstacles on our own. Then when everything we try ends up failing us, we finally turn to God and ask him for help.
In reality, we should be turning to God first and asking Him from the start how we should solve our problems. He should not be our Plan B or C or D.
In Psalms 32:8, the Lord tells us “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”
And Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
I believe this applies to all of the situations we may find ourselves in. We should seek God first when we’re dealing with important things like family issues or work issues. We should also seek His guidance first for the smaller things — like how to deal with a messed up lawnmower.
But whatever situation we find ourselves in, our Plan A should be asking the Lord to direct our paths. Then we won’t even need a Plan B or C or D.
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