I grew up not far from Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada! I love it there! all the wildlife, the fresh air and, the lakes, but most of all I loved the mountains! For centuries people have climbed to the highest peak of the tallest mountain to feel a closeness with a higher power! I can promise you I have felt a closeness with God in the tops of those mountains! I have learned many lessons from them. I will discuss one such lesson I learned from hiking here in this post!
when I was 11 I hiked Mount Blakiston with my family! it is the tallest peak in park and a hike I won't soon forget! it was the hottest day of the summer and not a single cloud in the sky! the first little bit of the hike was relativity flat and shady..... but once you got on that mountain there was no protection from the sun, and you were hiking straight up towards it! going almost vertical. each step you took you slid back 1/2 a step! it was a long hard hike! it seemed there was no end to this mountain! I remember wishing I had never started up this path, I was hot, I was sticky, I was stinky, I was tired, I wanted a drink, and I wanted to go home! thanks to some encouragement from dad and a few of my brothers I got to the Top! upon arrival and slapping the cairn formed at the peak I remember screaming at the top of my lungs! "I BEAT YOU MOUNTAIN!!!!!" I felt so accomplished, and the view from the top of that mountain was incredible! seemed like there was no end to it! we saw over the mountain tops until the horizon fell of the curvature of the earth! I felt so happy that I made the decision to make that hike! on our way down the side of the mountain we were able to enjoy our descent and the scenery around us! by the time we got back to the cars I was glad I had done the hard things on that hike for the wonderful and beautiful day I had had!
on another occasion I was hiking with my family in the Grand Canyon! this experience much different! overall still enjoyable and I am glad for the experience but..... probably won't do it again! this time, as the Grand Canyon is a giant chasm in the Earths surface instead of a big ole' triangle in the sky, we started with our descent! it was much easier and an enjoyable start! We kept on going downward, into this giant gorge God carved out of the Earth! eventually it got to a point where all I saw was rocks and a strip of blue sky above us! it was again hot but the rocks reflected the heat like and oven making it hotter and hotter! still a simple descent we got further into the colossal canyon! we eventually reached a point where we realized we were not going to reach the bottom and we needed to have lunch! My family was ooo-ing and ahh-ing over the majestic colours and contrasts in the rock! how beautiful the suns rays looked on the canyon walls...... I am colour blind! I saw a whole bunch of brown rock..... none of these oranges and reds... JUST BROWN! plain and simple! well after that we decided to head on back up.... I hadn't realized how far down we had gotten until we were trying to get back out! up until this point I was pretty content with the hike... now I had to get myself out of this huge hole! I climbed up, Now I was hot, I was sweaty, I was stinky and I was not having very much fun! we hiked up... but like I said I had no idea how far down we were until I was climbing up that same way! I was still hot, sweaty and stinky but not even close to being done! we continued to climb up and eventually, after a hike that took much much longer than we had originally thought it would, we got out of the canyon!
what lesson did I learn from these two experiences? when thinking of both of these examples I thought of a comparison in life! the choices we make now determine the paths we must take later! I learned that making the right choice made things easier on later in life even if it seems hard right now! I also learned however as we make poor choices we have to work much harder to work your way out of them! Our Heavenly Father loves us so much he has given us the right to choose or, in other words, has given us the gift of agency! each day we gain experiences and learn how to appropriately use our agency and get closer to God! Making correct choices may be hard at times but will always lift us higher and give us a greater view of our Heavenly Fathers plan! and much like my journey up Blakiston!
Like I said earlier in the blog it was not that I hated my journey in the Grand Canyon, I was grateful for the experience.... I would just rather not have to do it again! so it is in life! we will all make poor choices that, may limit our view and can be hard to come out of! we may not even know how far in we have gotten until we are trying to get out, however there is a way out! it is not always easy but it is always possible! through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can climb out of any hole and be renewed! and then we can learn from our experiences and avoid them in the future!
W.M.I.? The choices we make now determine the paths we must travel later!
No comments:
Post a Comment