Guide and Anchor

Recently, I have felt that, as a parent, I should be more open in sharing my spiritual insights with my children.  These are some thoughts I shared with them after our recent trip to Zion.

Before leaving on our trip to Zion National Park, I was not at all excited about going.  In fact, I was very nervous and even somewhat grouchy.  You could say I was murmuring.  After all, people regularly get lost out in the desert.  They get hurt.  All too often, they even die.  Let's not go into the issue of why I had sent my 14 year old  down for an even longer period, without a care.  He's a teenager, this is ME.  I'd thought about what routes I wanted to do, and fortunately, those are the ones we ended up doing.  

Still, I was nervous as we set out that first day.  "What if....?" was running through my mind.  However, within just minutes of starting out, I realized two crucial things.  First, our leaders, Dave and Dave Allison, knew where they were going.  They had been there before, and they knew the way.  We were not going to get lost.  Second, I learned that after our leaders had set up the ropes and anchored them into the rock, we were not going to fall.  Now, we could still get some bumps if we were careless, but we were not going to fall.  Realizing these things allowed me to relax and have fun for the rest of the trip.  

Similarly, in our lives, we are blessed to have leaders who know the way.  This could be our local leaders, but specifically, I am referring to the Prophet and Apostles of the Church, who are in turn led directly by Jesus Christ.  They know they way.  Christ has been there before.  They will never get lost or lead us astray.  In addition, we have a sure anchor.  The anchor, of course, if Christ himself, and the way we attach ourselves to Him is through prayer, pondering the scriptures and following the commandments.  If we do these things, we will not fall.  We will have trials and problems, but we will not fall.  When we realize the safety of these to things, the guide and the anchor, we can be assured we will avoid so many of life's difficulties, and we can relax and enjoy our time here.

There is a critical distinction to make, however.  Once we entered the slot canyon, there was no way out except at the end, the destination.  Once you commit to the canyon, you are literally forced to continue on that path to the end.  That is not the case with life--there are many exits and side paths on the path.  That makes it all the more critical to follow the guide, always.