A railroad track is hardly ever a straight line. It often has twists and turns, mountains to climb and valleys to glide through. Today, I want to talk to you about the twists and turns that your life train will often have to encounter.
When you think about a train going around a bend or going over a winding passage through the mountains, you don’t really worry about it too much because you know those are normal occurrences in train travel. We all know that sooner or later the track will straighten out again and the path will be smooth once again.
The twists and turns of life are similar. We all go through them, we know they are going to come, and that eventually we will come out on the other side totally fine. It’s when we go through them that we realize they can be tiring, worry some, or even fearful, especially if we are not under control in the midst of them. A train that is traveling too fast through even the slightest turn can cause an accident to happen, which could result in people getting hurt.
In life, when something comes around the corner of our lives that we didn’t expect, we can race through it without thought, letting it affect and control our emotions or even our common sense. When we allow our emotions to take control of our lives, our train is in danger of becoming more damaged or even destroyed. Often times, it pulls others along into the destruction and pain of the situation.
Let me put it simply. When a hard circumstance comes into our lives, we have a choice to make. We can allow it to get us emotional and irrational, which causes us to make bad decisions often resulting in others getting hurt along with us. Or… We can look at the situation and make wise choices about what we are going to do.
When it comes to a train, it may need to slow down to a speed that guarantees safety through the twists and turns. In life, we can go to God and Godly council to help us know what we should do to stay strong during the difficulties that are promised to come into our lives.
I had a situation like this come up in my life recently, and I will say at first I made the wrong choice and let my emotions take over. It resulted in a loved one’s feelings getting hurt and them feeling more guilty than they needed to. It also built a wall in our relationship that would take time to break down and trust to be reestablished in the relationship, on both sides. If I had looked at the situation differently at the beginning, we may not have had to mend our relationship as much as we did. Yes, I was hurt at the beginning, but God teaches us to be wise and have a forgiving spirit.
Proverbs 19:8 – He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.
Proverbs 17:24 – Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
Matthew 6:14,15 – For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Luke 17:3 – Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
We can’t go back and fix the mistakes we have already made, but we can learn from them and strive to do better in the future by controlling our emotions and acting in wisdom no matter the circumstances that come our way.