Less Traveled

"The Road Not Taken"
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler long I stood
And looked down one as far I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as far as that passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how the way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged into a wood, and I -
took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I would consider myself a follower - not much of a leader. I take the road often traveled by others. Take my best childhood friend as an example. She leads in everything, and I always tried to filled her steps when we were younger - one day we were playing and her leg hair was gone! What?! "Your mom let you do it?!" I was jealous and didn't want to be the outsider so I went home and begged my mom if I could shave my legs too. There was also another time she answered her door with a brand new, short haircut. What did I do? Yep, I chopped mine off too. She was the girl all the guys went for in 6th grade, and I was just her friend that they never really cared for. I actually dated a guy for 3 days in 6th grade after she and he broke up (talk about sloppy 6th grade seconds!). Oh, and her birthday is before mine, which means she of course got her license way before me (although really it was only two months, but it seemed like eternity).

Even in the midst of being a follower, I play by the rules hard and never tend to stray from them (goodie two-shoes, I'm telling ya!). I make sure everything is in its place or has a place. I am a people-pleaser. Basically, I could be taken advantage of because I just don't want to be on your bad side. Far too often, how I make decisions carefully considers how it impacts others or how others will respond to that decision. Sadly, this brings me to no life - at least not mine.

You see, life brings you a lot of paths you can take. However, it is like no one path is the same for anyone. I'm sure you can say you've had some interesting forks-in-the-road instantly appear throughout your life. There are hard decisions to make and everyone has their opinion about how you should go about making the journey. If I could do anything, I would just ask God to take me to Heaven instead of making difficult decision, but obviously, I think he has me at the fork for a reason. Here is my advice: Seek truth. Seek truth from God. Seek truth in His Word.

People are always going to give you their two cents. Coming from the girl who wants to make everyone happy - forget those people (am I acutally saying this? Sorry - shocker to me!). Yes, you can listen and take their advice for what it is worth and maybe some of it will be good for you to apply to your life - but, ultimately, my goal is to be in God's will. Right now, my life is at a fork in more than one area - maybe I need to take the road less traveled - maybe I need to take some risks. Maybe I need to take the road where people may not understand the "hows" or "whys" and may respond with a, "What are you thinking?" or "I don't know if you are making the right decision." Maybe.

So what now? I'll be honest. I'm nervous and don't necessary like the unknowns of life. The Lord is building in me a lot of trust in Him. He has taken a lot of my controlling hand off of my life. I know this is the best, but trusting can be hard...

Luckily this is what God says:
Matthew 17:20
"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you"

So my mustard seed faith is simply this: I know the Lord is good and has plans to prosper me. He will reveal to me which roads I am to take throughout my lifetime if I remain in Him.