Stuck!

One spring day in my fourth or fifth year, I was enjoying exploring around the farm buildings where I grew up. Walking between two of the buildings, I found myself stuck in the mud. I was wearing my tall barn boots, but couldn’t pull myself out of the mess I was in. So, I did the only thing I knew to do. I yelled for my father to come pull me out. And he did!

Fast forward to another spring about twelve years later when I was learning to drive the car. One Sunday afternoon, I wanted my Dad to go driving with me, but he was tired and preferred napping. He told me I could take the Nash Rambler (stick shift) and drive it around the farmyard. I did fine driving up and down the driveways, backing and turning, using the clutch and gear shift, UNTIL, I decided to drive across the farmyard. This was exactly the area where many years before I had stood in the mud in my boots yelling for my Dad. You guessed it. I got the car stuck in the mud. Again, I had no choice but to run to the house and call my Dad to get me out. He interrupted his nap to get the tractor and pull me out.

I suspect that I had something to do with cleaning up the car that day. After all, we all knew where the blame lay.

Can we draw a life lesson from these muddy adventures? I think so. When we land in the mud, in order to get out successfully, we first need to acknowledge we have caused a problem. Then we need to call someone to get us out of the mess—and the best one to call is our Father, then, accept our role in the problem and thank Him for His help. Thirdly, we must clean up the mess as best as we can. It may take a long time to eventually get the mud out of all the crevices, but at least we’ve made an honest attempt to correct our fault.

Did my Father prevent me from getting my driving license because of this incident? Of course not. He realized that I had done all I could, learned from my mistake, and might even be a better driver for the experience. Our Heavenly Father treats us much the same way!