Sabbath Thoughts - The School of Life

Today I am in Montana with my ever so busy nanny family.  Usually we try to hit church in the small town of Darby, but today we held a little devotional within our ranch home.  My dear boss was recently diagnosed with liver cancer (not a good cancer to have) and he conducted the devotional.  The topic of discussion was the school of life.  He told us a story about how once his son Alex was asked by Stephen Covey the topic of what he was doing in life.  Alex told Stephen that he went to school and then followed that statement up by asking him what he did.  Stephen Covey replied that he goes to school as well.  Now if you know anything about Stephen Covey, you would know that he is long gone and finished with school.  This got my boss to thinking about the deeper point that Stephen was making about how we are all enrolled in the school of life.  The interesting thing about the school of life is that we are all in a different course, but are all trying to get to the same place.  Some people get F's in the school of life, but the nice thing is that we can always retake a course to fix it and try to do a little bit better.      


This idea got me thinking about the lessons that I am learning right now in the school of life.  I think that the hardest lesson that I am learning is how to let Heavenly Father be in control.  Faith is a hard lesson.  I want to do things by myself because I do not have enough trust in God to direct my paths.  Prov 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."  I know that this principle is true in theory, but it is hard for me to do in practice.  Some people (aka my sister Becky) seem to have faith as a part of their being, others (me) have to work and fight and struggle to remember that we are happiest when we let Heavenly Father guide us.  


Right now, this is the lesson that I am learning in the school of life.  Can I trust that Heavenly Father is doing the right thing, even when it might not be what I want (for example, my boss and cancer)?  Can I trust Heavenly Father when I don't understand the path that I am on (dating and the lack thereof)?  I know that if I do so, he will provide a way.  The hard part is just doing so.  This is what I am studying right now in the school of life.  Wish me luck on my exam.