On Which Paths Do You Travel?

Ps. 23:3 - "He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake."

• Story From My College Days

I remember when I was in college an older married student came to class one day and told us about his 18-year-old son. He said his son came home yesterday and informed his parents that he had just enlisted into the Marine Corp.

The father was quite shocked. So he asked his son, “Why would you want to do that?” 

He said his son looked at them with a straight face and said, “Because I am sick and tired of taking orders from you and mom. All I ever hear is it is time to get up, hurry and eat your breakfast, get to school, do your homework, do these chores, you have to be home by midnight and it is time to go to bed. I am tired of taking orders from you all.”  

His dad asked, “So you joined the Marine Corps so you would not have to take orders?”

I don’t know about you but just writing this story has me laughing, my side hurts and tears are running down my face. I crack up every time I remember that story. 

• Which Paths Have You Chosen?

One word in Ps. 23:3 has grabbed my attention and it is the word “paths” of righteousness. You will notice the word is plural. We need to stay on the “paths of righteousness”.

I believe that some of our life “paths” that we choose can be more difficult than other paths. Now I could be wrong here but I think choosing the Marine Corps may have been a little harder than living at this young man’s parent’s house when it came to receiving orders.

I am not saying the young man made the wrong choice by choosing the Marines because some of my greatest learning experiences have come from enduring difficult struggles. If he stayed in the Marines I am sure they changed him for the better.

However, I would imagine those first weeks of basic training were difficult especially since he didn’t like his mom telling him it was time to awake.

Some times in life we try to take the easy path or the path with the least resistance and that might be okay but I can testify that the real lessons of life are learned when we are exerting all our strength to keep our heads above water.

One important thing to remember is this that because you choose a path of righteousness doesn’t mean safe sailing.

If you look back to the early disciples and apostles many of them died because of their decision to travel on the path of righteousness. James was beheaded, Peter crucified upside down, Paul locked away in prison the last years of his life and the Apostle John was exiled to an island.

• When You Are Getting Ready To Choose A Path

Don’t choose a path simply because you think it will be easy or the one with the least resistance. Choose your path of righteousness that will challenge you and when you get to the end of it you will be able to say, “That path really taught me something.”

Choose a path where you will be able to use your God given talents.

I would not choose a path to simply make someone else happy. I did once when I was 14 years old and can tell you this after a month I kept asking myself, “What in the world have I done?” (I am not talking about doing something for a day or a week to make someone happy of course we would do that. What I am talking about is something that will take years.)

I counseled a man one time that became a dentist to make his father happy. He said after his fifth year of being a dentist that he was calling it quits. He said, “I can’t do this any longer.” He felt as though he had wasted over tens years of his life doing something to make someone else happy.

When you choose a path choose one you love and you will enjoy your journey. 

• There Are Some Paths That Should Be Avoided

I will not give you a list of these paths. You are old enough to know right from wrong. Do yourself a favor and don’t go down the wrong path. Going down the wrong path can make life very difficult when it didn’t have to be.

Look at people who have gone down the wrong paths and learn from their mistakes. There is nothing in the rulebook that says you can’t learn from another person’s mistakes. 

So Do Yourself a Favor and Learn From Others.

Learn from those who have done things correct and learn from those who have made mistakes.

Which paths have you chosen if you look back now may have been a little harder than necessary? Yeah, I know we all have a few of those paths that we are not proud that we have walked, but the key is we don’t keep walking on them.

Think on These:

A person can save himself from many hard falls by refraining from jumping to conclusions.

Everyone is capable of making mistakes, but fools practice them.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word