Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB

Some editions translate verse 6 as “He will direct your paths”. This is what I claim I want. For Abba to direct my paths. I want Him to tell me how far to journey down this red dirt road each day. I boldly declare I want Abba to tell me which fork in this dirt road to take…but do I really? Am I willing to allow Him to tell me which way to go? Sometimes “YES” and sometimes, not so much.

This past weekend Baxter and I rode to Webster Massachusetts to pick up a boat. It was over 900 miles one way. It was wonderful to get away after a long tax season and drive.

On the way home, we cut a tire on the boat trailer in the middle of a thunderstorm. We had stopped to get a room for the night. The hotel was full, but the manager said we could change the trailer tire.

We jacked the boat up and got the tire tool out. There were four different lug sizes on that thing and not one fit. So the next thing was to call AAA. The young man arrived in about 30 minutes. But, he didn’t have the right size to get the lug nut off either. His advice was to get a room and go to Auto Zone the next morning.

So the next morning we took our time and had a good breakfast. Loaded up that truck and prepared to leave. There was a young man there in the hotel parking lot watching. He asked if we knew the tire was cut. He and Baxter talked for a while. He told us we needed a “thin-wall, deep-set” lug wrench.

We got to Auto Zone. They had what we needed. So we jacked the boat up again, changed that tire, and prepared to head out.

I tell this story to say this. Abba directed our steps, our path.
We stopped at a hotel that allowed us to stay until help arrived.
AAA couldn’t repair the tire but told us where to go.
There was a flower show in Allentown PA (where we were) and no rooms were available. Yet Abba took us to the one hotel with only 2 rooms left. Pet friendly. Didn’t charge for the dogs because of our trouble. And gave the AAA discount.
The next morning a young man “just happened” to be in the parking lot and tell us what we needed.
The Auto Zone was close and straight down the road from our hotel.
They allowed us to change the tire in the parking lot even though you aren’t supposed to work on your vehicle there.
The manager checked behind us to make sure the lugs were good and tight.

So we were shown favor after favor. Abba gently took us where we needed to be. Our devotion that morning was talking about how God’s best for us isn’t always comfortable or pretty. Sometimes His best is hard or challenging. But He uses those things to grow us up and to teach us. The thing we need to do is recognize His best when it comes.

I’m so grateful for a good and faithful Abba God that never leaves us… in the small things or the big things or the daily life things. An Abba God that does indeed, “direct our paths”.