I spent some time on the road this past week with my dad and girls traveling. We were going to a place that was unfamiliar territory for all of us. Before we headed out I typed in our destination in the Waze App, and it quickly calculated our directions and even had an estimated time of arrival. We have come so far in our technology that we can literally just jump in a car and go without giving it much thought as to how we are going to get there. Gone are the days of reading maps and stopping and asking for directions.

In many ways I love the convenience of typing in an address and directions appear and even audibly tell me which way to turn. Wouldn’t it be nice if life could work like that? We just type in our destination…Heaven…hit calculate and it gives us a nice pathway to get there. There will never be an app that can do that for us, but we do have His Holy word to guide us and direct us on our journey.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

We have a decision to make when it comes to which road to choose. I just shared with one of my girls this week about the time I had to decide on whether or not to stay in the Corporate world and work in radio which is where I had earned my degree or be a mom. I loved my job. I loved the people I got to meet, and the cool places I got to go. I thought I had arrived at where I was supposed to be in life, but my precious family was suffering. My husband was bathing the kids and feeding them dinner as I would get home late often. I was dropping them off at two different locations for daycare because we felt strongly in them going to the preschool at our church. It was exhausting, and I constantly felt like I was swimming upstream. I told my husband that if I could just get our baby over to the church where I could have one drop off and pick up that would help make things easier.

I called the Church Preschool office and spoke to the Director. She told me I was the 4th person that day that had called looking for infant care. You guys there is a 4 to 1 ratio for babies to teacher.  The Director told me she needed to find a teacher and she could make the class work.  I thought…GREAT, let me know when you find her.

The Director called me the next day to ask if I wanted to be the Preschool teacher. She said The Lord kept putting me on her heart. You guys that was the furthest from my plans. I wanted to keep my job doing what I loved to do, but I found myself with a decision to make. I had to ask for help. My husband told me to make a Pro’s and Con’s list. I had a whole list of excuses as to why I should keep the job. I was going to get a discount for the girls daycare. I was going to work 9a to 2:30p. I was going to rock one of my own babies. I was not going to have to pay for after school care anymore. I would not have to work anymore weekends. The list was long for the pro’s and very short for the con’s. I was literally going to make $20 less to rock babies than to keep my salary paying job. The answer was obvious, but at the end of the day I still had a decision to make.

I had to go into my boss and tell him that I was resigning. I had sweaty palms, my heart rate was high, and it was hard. After I told him, he looked me in the eyes and told me that I had just made the best decision of my life and that I would never look back and regret choosing to be a mom. He was right.

I love being a mom and helping my girls find the narrow gate that leads to life eternal. I told my girl that was listening to me share the story that in the end the decision was mine to make. I had to do what was hard in order to put the needs of my family before myself. Often times choosing the narrow road is as simple as putting others above ourselves. When our focus is off of us and placed on those we love the most it helps us see the pathway a little more clearly. Then we do the hard thing and walk in the way!