Whenever I think of winter weather, my mind goes back to the years we lived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
My husband was on the ministerial staff of First Baptist Church Pigeon Forge, and our first purchase was a pair of red sleds for our children because we knew we would see much more snow there than we had in Alabama.
When the first big snow came, our kids were ready and eagerly waiting. With barely an inch covering the ground early that evening, they tried to ride those sleds down the hill in front of our house, but there just wasn’t enough snow for those sleds to go as fast as my children wanted them to go. I convinced the kids that the next day promised to give them the fast and exciting snow sledding they had been waiting to enjoy.
‘Winter wonderland’
During the night, the temperature kept dropping, and the snow kept falling. The next morning, we awoke to a winter wonderland of over 20 inches of snow and the sounds of the whole neighborhood outside playing in it.
We bundled up our kids in layers of fleece, with boots, hoods and gloves. They struggled to walk in the thick layers of clothing, but they waddled out to the yard. We looked around and saw nothing but white. I repeat: Nothing but white! What we did not see was a pair of red sleds.
Missed opportunities
The kids had left them in the yard, and almost two feet of snow now covered them. We tried digging and poking holes with broom handles, but it was a huge yard and neither of our children could remember where they had left their sled. We had snow, but no sleds.
When the snow melted, the gleaming sun shone on those bright red sleds on the muddy ground. Now we had sleds, but no snow.
We all learned a life lesson about missed opportunities that day. We can settle for the mediocre and get involved with things that don’t really matter and don’t really make a difference. Then when God gives us a chance to be involved in something really great, we miss it because we are “snowed under” with lesser things.
It’s always best to wait on God to lead us to the right activities, opportunities and resources instead of settling for our own opinions, ideas and methods. He has a blizzard of blessings in store for us, and I don’t want to settle for anything less.
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