Thanksgiving Lessons

I took the kids hiking in Georgia today. During

this hike, we learned several life lessons. 

We got to the Chattahoochee Forest and drove up the trail for a while. Eventually the kids wanted to get out and hike. We found fork in the road which led to a steep path but would get us quickly to the top of the mountain that we were next to (rather than continuing slowly on the road up and around).  

As we started going, Ollie and Maddie seemed to be able to travail the steep path effortlessly, while Austin, Logan, and I seemed to stumble and slip with the rocks beneath us. About 1/2 way up, Austin found his stride and watched Logan, giving him hand holds along the way. Ollie continued on ignoring Logan who was struggling with the steep path. Madelyn kept yelling down at Logan- “don’t climb like that...” “don’t climb like that”. I stayed lower, supporting Logan, and made sure he didn’t fall lower than me. 

About 3/4 of the way up, Logan had all but given up. He was in tears, and just wanted to go back to the car. He was dirty, and scared. It was at this time that I kept encouraging him and told him, “just keep going. Follow your brother. I will stay behind you and will keep you safe.”  Logan kept pushing forward, and with a little more encouragement and a little more effort made it to the top. 

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At the top, the surroundings were peaceful and the views amazing. We found ourselves able to look over the valley below and behold the breathtaking views. 

I used this as an opportunity to teach two important principles to the kids. 

The first was this- sometimes in life, we slip down the hill, life gets tough, or we just don’t think we can go anymore. Heavenly Father has provided us our Older Brother, Jesus Christ, to show us the way home to our Father. Following him we can find our way through the steep, rocky paths. We know if we follow him, Heavenly Father will be their to protect us and keep us safe. 

The second was how to treat people. When life gets tough for someone, we have some choices in how to react. We can be like Oliver- just keep going on our way without stopping or caring about those around us. We can be like Maddie, watching from her place ahead yelling out how not to come up the path. We can be like Austin- traveling close, pointing out the safe places and encouraging to keep going. Or we can choose to stay with the person. Willing to push and keep him from falling any more, constantly reaching out, helping the person to the top.  We each travel through life making choices that are hard. It is important to love others and treat them with dignity and help them through those tough times. 

After spending time on the top of the mountain, we quickly learned another lesson. We couldn’t find our way back to the path. Each of us were certain we knew which way to go. Each of us found our way deep into thorns and briars never finding the path. Maddie was scared and I gave her a hug. At that time, we decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to either help us remember or recognize the path or help us find another way down. We kept walking. Eventually we found a road (this was the road we would have taken had we followed it at the fork when we decided to deviate up the steep path). Today we were reminded the importance of prayer and that God does answer them. We were also taught a valuable lesson about choices. We can chose the paths that have been set before us, or we can go the hard way. Whatever choice we make we must then rely on Heavenly Father to help us find our way back again. 

What a great opportunity this was for us.