A Road map

How many times have you heard the Bible referred to as road map in sermons from distinguished pastors?  I have heard this NUMEROUS times.  In fact, I bet I have even said it a time or two in my life.  However my pastor made a comment a few months ago in a sermon about the Bible not being so much a road map but a way to learn about the nature and character of God which can transform our hearts and help us reform our steps. 

That has stuck with me because it really changed my view on the authoritative word of God and what role it should play in my life.  One of the things I figured out was that I was actually a little frustrated that I could not think of the Bible in that way because then I wanted to know-then where the heck is the road map!!

You see-I don't do well without knowing the answers to the questions about where my path is going and why I am on that path and how I can get off of that path if I want to and most importantly what I am supposed to accomplish on the path.  I want ANSWERS.  Well-guess what...We don't always have the answers-and we don't always get a road map for exactly how to perform each activity in our life. 

However, when we DO get a road map-it is such a nice peaceful feeling!  What I have come to realize more and more over the last few weeks is that one of the road maps that we do have is received from those whom God has placed in our lives.  I wrote about what Community does for me in my last blog post and this has been reinforced even more during the last few weeks. 

My particular new challenge is trying to uncover what it looks like to raise a little girl with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  Last week, Annabelle was diagnosed and since I have had the privilege of talking to 2 particular "road maps" about how her little brain works.  Her grandfather and her daddy.  They are able to put adult understanding into a 3 years brain that quite frankly-baffles me!  I know they will not always have the answers that I so desperately trying to figure out from Annabelle but it is so nice to hear their truth about their brains work.  So now instead of looking at something that Annabelle does and saying-WHAT? into blank air, I can saw-WHAT? to my husband and he can say-"maybe this is what is going on."  So refreshing. 

I know that they will not have all the answers-they aren't supposed to...but it is great to have some insight and a map that is being constantly filled in.  And I get to learn the lesson that God is enough to sustain me AND Annabelle as we both navigate through the rest of the years God has planned for us.  God is GOOD!