The Beverly family took a road trip to Pigeon Forge a few days ago (if you read this in a few weeks or a few years, substitute that in place of a few days). I love getting out of town occasionally with my family for some special time with them. When we go places, it is usually an adventure.

On Friday night, I took them on a tour and I did not tell them where we were going. After getting them lost on a dark road a time or two or more over the years, they are a little anxious when I decide to just start driving and see where we end up. This time I knew exactly where I was going and I knew exactly where we would end up. Their job that night was to trust me.

The road was dark and a little scary as one of my kids described it but I knew what I was doing. After a few minutes, they settled down and realized that though they were in the dark, I knew where we were and where we were going.

We eventually ended up in Gatlinburg where we enjoyed the scenery but more than that, we enjoyed each other’s company. That little trip ended up being a pleasurable little adventure for all of us.

In life, there are times that our Heavenly Father leads us into places that seem dark and scary. We may not understand where we are in life at the time and we don’t really know where we are going to end up. The scariest part is that we cannot see the destination for the darkness. In those moments, we have to trust that though we do not know how things are going to turn out, He does. If we choose to trust Him, the trip will turn into a joyful adventure.

Are you going through something right now with no obvious answers as to why or where? Trust that your heavenly Father loves you and will lead you through the darkness to the light. Do not panic! When we panic, we tend to make unwise decisions. Trust Him and enjoy the ride.

Once upon a time, two kids had a diabolical plan. Their names were Bud and Teresa (my sister and me). They were just youngins. Bud and Teresa had been playing outside as they often did when the bully next door started picking on them as he had done many times before. This time they had enough. Something had to be done and if it were to be done, they would have to do it themselves.

Those two kids began to plot and plan and plan and plot. What could they do to stop the bully that they called Dougy the brat from bullying them or any other kid ever again? He had to be stopped once, and for all. As they hid behind the tall pine tree that gave them the cover from the roaming eye of the bully, they hammered out their diabolical plan. It was a brilliant plan as far as they were concerned and it would have to be executed flawlessly.

There plan would require some things from the house which posed a problem. If they were caught gathering their things the plan would not work so this would require a great amount of secrecy. Bud and Teresa headed for the house, entered the back door and gathered their things. Their mom noticed that they were acting rather odd. They seemed to be very focused and eerily quiet. “What could they be up to?” she thought. She watched carefully as they were heading toward the door to go back outside. Each of the kids seemed to be hiding something from her sight.

“What are you two doing?” their mom asked. “Nothing!” they replied. “What do you have in your hands?” she asked. Teresa turned around and displayed a toy plastic hatchet that she held tightly in her hand. She looked at Bud and asked, “What do you have in your hand?” “It’s just a tator sack,” he replied. “What on earth are you two going to do with a hatchet and potato sack?”

Realizing that they had been caught they began to confess and in their confession, they revealed their “almost” perfect diabolical plan. “Dougy the brat started picking on us again so we decided to chop him up and put him in the tator sack,” Bud said.

Bud and Teresa’s mom began to share a better way for them to deal with the situation. She told them that it could be that Dougy was a bully because he felt like nobody liked him. She suggested that they try a different approach. “Try being nice to him and play with him and see if that works first,” she suggested. The two little kids did as their mom had suggested and it worked. Dougy did much better. He still had his moments of being a smart mouth but he no longer picked on Bud or Teresa.

To this day, I am not sure if it was the kindness that we showed him or if it was the fact that we told him that we were going to chop him up and put him in a tator sack if he didn’t stop picking on us. Whatever the reason, Dougy straightened up.

You may have someone in your life that is being very difficult to deal with. You never know what someone may be going through at home or elsewhere that is causing them to be the way they are. You never know the hurt or pain they may have in their life. Maybe they feel that no one could ever love them so rather than feeling rejection, they act in a way that keeps everyone away.

If you have someone like that in your life, try showing unconditional love and kindness. They may never respond to it but you will never know unless you try. It could be the love that you show them that sets them free from a life of anger and pain. It is worth a try.

One last note: If you are the one that is being so cantankerous, you might want to straighten up. Someone might be plotting a plan to straighten you up.