Saturday, January 28, 2012

Friday adventures told on a...

Saturday.

A group of friends, fellow homeschooling moms, get together two Fridays a month for the kids to play together and for the moms to strengthen and encourage one another. Also known as laughing ourselves silly over this thing called the homeschooling life. The absurdities and the serious truths all get meshed together in one huge hodge podge while the kids run through the woods or the game room or jump on the trampoline or swim in the pool based on whose house is hosting.

This past Friday it was my house. And since Old Man Winter is not coming South this year, the day was sunny and the kids were woods rambling. When it came time for one family to leave so a dance class could be attended, we called the kids in. Except two didn't show up. Two of the girls. Questions and the answers that followed uncovered that while in the woods, these two had peeled off from the main group to talk.

After much talking and walking and not a great deal of paying attention, the result was they were lost. In the woods behind my house. My boys, who are quite aware of our woods, took off to find them. One of the girls had her cell phone so we did get in touch with them that way, but she didn't know where they were and neither did we. There are over a hundred acres of woods behind us.

Husband was home early on Friday so he got on the phone with her and began asking questions. At first she tried to tell him about the hay bales and the horses and the trees and the creek and the number of hills they had gone up when he stopped her and said, "You've got to trust me to get you out. The things that you are seeing are not things I can see. We need to use the same reference point. Tell me where the sun is based on where you are standing."

And with the reference point of the sun, he was able to tell her which direction to walk. He stayed on the phone with her and eventually the girls reached a main road where he was able to pick them up and drive back. The whole adventure lasting nearly three hours. No one had panicked, but everyone was greatly relieved to have them back, safe, a bit thirsty and hungry, and with a story to tell, but all right.

In talking to the boys about it, Husband said the whole thing served as a perfect illustration of what happens in life. We get busy walking and talking and forget our direction. Without a central reference point of truth, we try to find our way out or in or to by only what we can see. But our eyes not only deceive us when we're lost, but the sights (circumstances) around us cannot be our reference point because they change. Only the truth of God's Word can be a lasting reference point for which direction to walk. His Word does not change nor does it deceive. His Word endures forever.

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