• Sidetracked

    By: Kristen L. McNulty

    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

    The book of Proverbs is filled with amazing advice that any person would do well to follow. But there are a few verses that stand out to me right now more than the rest and I believe living in the times that we do, we especially would benefit from following. The verses are found in Proverbs chapter 4,

    "Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path and stay safe. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." (Proverbs 4:25-26)

    I don't know about you, but it's really easy for me to get distracted and sidetracked. You know we go to church on Sunday and get fired up with what we're taught, but then Monday rolls around and there comes the pressure at work or at school. Five o'clock rolls around and while we're free from our desk, along comes a slew of other distractions. There are events to go to, teams to be a part of, people we need to see, stores we need to go to and shows we need (or think we need) to watch. Then bedtime rolls around and if we weren't so exhausted we'd be able to look back and see that our day didn't exactly match up with the kind of living we know we're supposed to be doing.

    As I said, it's easy to get sidetracked.

    Just stop for a second and examine all the things you busied yourself with today. How many of those things really needed to be a priority on your schedule? Is there anything you could have not done and still have met all your responsibilities? As long as we allow our schedule to take priority over our spirituality we're going to come up empty time and time again.

    We need to be so careful because our time on earth is short and if we're not careful, we could easily find ourselves wandering far away from where we wanted to be. It's like if you go for a walk in the bush and get distracted and accidentally walk one degree off of your course. If you're so sidetracked that you don't notice right away and you keep walking, after a couple of miles you're going to find yourself really far way from where you wanted to be.

    But the truth is being sidetracked as a way of life can only continue for as long as we allow it to. In light of that let's make the choice to put an end to it right here and right now!

    So how is that done? Let me repeat the advice from Proverbs:

    "Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path and stay safe. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." (Proverbs 4:25-26)

    Mark out a safe path, stick to it and keep your eyes on the goal. We've only got one life to live, so let's commit to live it in such a way where at the end of our lives we're not looking back with regrets. Instead we're looking back and seeing a life that was faithfully lived for the God who gave His life for us.

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