October 2, 2020

Lost in the Forest!

Out of all the obstacles I have faced in my life, I think yesterday's obstacle was by far the most interesting I have ever experienced.

Many of you know that we live in the middle of a forest. Our property is surrounded by beautiful trees and the great outdoors. I love it.

Yesterday, I walked next door to my daughter-in-law's mother's house for a short visit. I went by way of the road and it took about 5 minutes to walk up the hill to her house. After a brief visit I decided to take the short cut home through the path in the woods between our houses. It should have taken me three minutes to get home. Of course that is only true if you take the correct path home.

As it turned out I went a little too far in the back yard before I turned toward the woods to find my path. When I got to the tree line I found what I thought was our path and thought it looked a bit overgrown since the last time I used it. No matter, I started on the path. All went well for a little while before I reached a dead end. No big deal. I knew I just needed to go a little to the right and keep moving forward and I would run into the correct path.

After a much longer time I realized I was lost. I had managed to cross the barbed wire fence onto our property so I "knew" I was going in the right direction. I had a quick prayer and then had a prompting to call home and have someone walk out to the path and call me so I could see how close I was. But of course I thought that was silly because I "knew" our house was just to the right and straight ahead. I was prompted several more times, but still I didn't call.

More time had passed and I realized I had been wandering for over an hour by now and was so deep in the forest that there were no clearings or paths of any kind. I couldn't even see the sun anymore. I had several more prayers and really started pleading with God for help. Again, I was prompted to call home.

This time I swallowed my pride and called my husband. While on the phone with him I saw a clearing and headed toward that thinking I finally found home. However it wasn't home, it was the creek that runs in the back of our property. I had never been there before so I didn't know where on the property it was. My husband figured out approximately where I was and asked a couple of our granddaughters to help find me. I was very, very far from where I thought I was. When he told me which way to turn I couldn't believe him because it was the exact opposite of the way I thought I should go.

While on the phone with Steve I sank knee deep in the mud at the shores of the creek. Steve heard me when I sank and then didn't hear anything else from me for a minute or so. He panicked, thinking I had fallen face first in the mud and was drowning. I was just trying to figure out how to get out of the mud and retrieve my shoes that were stuck in the mud. It took a while but I succeeded. What a MESS!

I downloaded a compass app so I could start traveling EAST to go home. After a few minutes of weaving around trees, climbing through tons of ferns, and climbing over downed trees I checked my compass again and found out I was headed WEST again. How did that happen? I asked Heavenly Father what I needed to learn from this experience and of course all sorts of ideas flooded into my head. I'll summarize in a minute.

Long story short, Steve started blowing a whistle so I could go toward my home. A few minutes later, I heard Alyson in the forest. I called out to her and she found me and lead me home to safety. I had suffered from heat exhaustion and scrapes and bruises; but, other than that I was fine.

So, what have I learned.

1. Follow the first prompting you receive. (I was much closer to home when I received that initial prompting.)

2. God never gives up on us. He sent me several more promptings until I finally swallowed my pride and called home.

3. Heavenly Father will always provide a way.

4. We need the guidance of the Holy Ghost and that is sometimes given through other people who have whistles and a compass.

5. Trust in the Lord and He will direct our paths.

6. My son shared this piece of advice. "If the path should only take about three minutes and you have gone longer than that you are on the wrong path. Call for help!"

7. Don't let pride stand in the way of getting the help you need WHEN you need it!

I tend to be very independent and "think" I know the right way. Independence is good; however, it is more important to recognize that I am dependent on my Savior, Jesus Christ for my salvation.

54Kathy Haynie, Dorothy Clawson and 52 others

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