I was walking in our hotel tonight with my niece. We have two separate hotel rooms for all of us, and they are on different floors. Every time we leave one of the rooms, she will run the opposite direction of where we need to go, and I'll have to call her back and tell her to go the other way. I also made it very clear to her that she cannot leave the room without an adult being with her.

I had scenes flash in my head of her running around the hotel, and getting scared and being lost and confused, wondering where she was going, and why it all seemed to look exactly the same, but that she could not find the right doors, and I thought of her there crying, alone, and scared.

And it made me think of how my own life is like this huge confusing hotel, where I can't read the room numbers or make sense of it, or know what direction is the right way to go, that if I were left on my own, I would be completely lost. I think of when I listen to the Lord telling me "Go this way" or that way, and how much better my life is on course.

Prairie probably does not see the problems or bad things that could happen if she did not listen to me and went off into the hotel by herself, but she trusted me, and so she listened. And now she is sleeping safely and soundly in bed.

I think I could try trusting the Lord a bit more, and asking more for direction in my life. Because when I listen, it leads me to paths that I never would have taken on my own. And they are invariably better.