Piano and errand day got off to a bumpy start yesterday afternoon.  After getting everyone in the van, I headed down the road--in the opposite direction of where I was supposed to go!

I was driving along preoccupied with ... planning out how our homeschool day might look in the highschool years... (I know, that sounds odd, but it is honestly where my mind was!) Suddenly I realized that I'm out in nowhere-land.

I really don't have a good excuse. We've gone to the same piano studio every week for three years, and almost ALL the places we drive are in the same area as piano. I'm not sure WHERE I thought I was going.

It struck me as a reflection of life. When something is new, we map out our plan, check our compass, and know the destination. There are several sayings to reflect this such as, "He who doesn't know where he's going is likely to end up somewhere else" and "If you fail to plan you plan to fail." Such quotes remind us to start off with a purpose, but as we progress down the road a few years, it is easy to forget to check our maps. We get careless, or even arrogant–having great faith in our carefully charted course.

We must not just make a plan, but we need to prevent distractions from crowding it out., lest we slip into autopilot and look around to find that we no longer are on the path we should be.

Finding ourselves in uncharted territory because God leads us differently than the course WE charted is one thing; Wandering aimlessly due to absentminded self-absorption is another. Take a moment to look at the scenery and the street signs. Are you on the road you ought to be?