I thought I’d do another quick Best Thing I Ever Learned From… edition, this time focused on driving. In the upcoming year, I’ll finally have to renew my license after six years (three yays for a new license picture…), which got me thinking about driving.

When I first learned how to drive, my excitement quickly gave way to nervousness. At first, I didn’t understand why people loved it so much. There’s a new sense of freedom, sure, but reversing and not hitting anything? Parallel parking? How about all the rules of the road? And the highway? Forget it. How was I supposed to remember it all? After one afternoon of driving practice with my dad, I remember parking in our driveway and with a frustrated huff, saying something along the lines of, “How do people do it? Driving is so hard! I can’t even reverse correctly – the car doesn’t go where I want it to go!”

I’ll forever remember this next part clear as day. My dad reached over from the passenger seat, held the steering wheel, and then turned to me and said, “Layo, you see this wheel? The car goes wherever you turn it. If you turn it right, it’ll go right. If you turn it left, it’ll go left.” For one, that was some pretty memorable advice for my reversing game (I’m a pro now). But more than that, those became some practical words of encouragement for me to remember at various times down the line in my life. And they’re words that I know will come in handy for 2017. Most people have goals they’d like to achieve for each new year; and most end up shucking those goals to the wayside by the time January comes to a close, due to distractions, procrastination, or hardship. But how much more successful we’d be with our goals if we remembered my dad’s poignant words!

At times it may seem like so many external forces have control over the events of our lives. Truly, life is unpredictable. But who’s steering the wheel of our lives? Are we leaving it up to chance, letting others dictate our actions in pursuit of our goals? Or are we steering our lives into the hands of the One who has our absolute best interest at heart when it comes to His will for our lives? This has been such a helpful truth for me to remember over the years since then. When I’ve wondered what decisions to make or which path to turn to, I remind myself that my life goes in whatever direction I steer it toward. And I know that at the end of the day, I want to steer closer and closer to the Lord, with Him as my faithful guide.

So long, 2016. Happy New Year in just a few hours, friends! Hope you have a blessed one.

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