A Slippery Course Change

When I was about eleven years old I got a brilliant idea. It was February and there was snow all around. I wanted to go sledding. Well there is nothing wrong with that, but my idea was more than just sledding.  I had just seen a movie about dog sledding and I thought it looked really cool. I had a couple of dogs and a sled surely it wasn't a big deal, right?

So I hooked one of my dogs, Diamond, up to the sled with a leash.  I had thought it all out perfectly. We lived on a hill and there was a downward slope in our backyard between some trees. I went to the top of the slope and I yelled for my dog to start running. It worked great! He pulled me smoothly to the bottom. However, that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to go even faster. So I decided to hook up two of my dogs and go again. Diamond was on the left and I hooked Goldie up on the right.

Just as I had wanted, I was going really fast and it was so much fun for about forty seconds, then something went wrong. Goldie started to go right-toward the woods, and Diamond was pulling the opposite direction. I tried to make them stop but I couldn't. Goldie was stronger so she was leading the sled more. The next thing I knew I was headed for the woods! Then a big tree was directly in front of us. Luckily my dogs saw that we were going to run into the tree...well lucky for them anyway. They split. Diamond went left and Goldie went right which pulled me smack into the tree!

 

I wasn't hurt too badly; just bumps and bruises. I did learn a lesson that day when I went inside and told my mom about how my dogs had gotten me hurt. I explained how it should have worked and that it was all their fault for not listening. She smiled and politely explained that it wasn't their responsibility... it was mine.

Looking back it reminds of a scripture in Matthew 6 verse 24. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

Both of my dogs had paths they wanted to follow and I should have picked only one of them to take me not both. Although Diamond usually stayed in the yard, Goldie always went to the woods and I knew it, but I thought that if I had both of them together then it would go my way, but I was wrong. I needed only one of them to lead me, Diamond was strong enough to pull me by himself; but because I wanted Goldie to pull too even though I didn't need her, I got hurt.

I've discovered that this can happen in life - not just literally, but spiritually. Sometimes we can be going on the path and following the right leader. Everything can be going great, then we see something that looks like it could be even more fun. We don't want to leave the path we are on so we try to attach those other things to our sleds and keep going. This can make for a slippery course change because it is impossible to have it both ways; it will always cause us to be pulled in two different directions. It simply doesn't work. We can't have all of the good and some of the...not so good.

There is a scripture in Joshua 24 verse 15 that says "Choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

I believe this verse states it perfectly... I can testify that it is important to make the choice now to stay on the right path following the Savior. I know He will never lead us astray, or lead us to harm in any way. He is the only one that will guide us safely to where we want to go.