As if for the first time

Eric made fun of my post from a few days ago that began "Can I think outloud?' You know what, I don't care what you think Eric Harry Beavers, I'm starting this one of the same way... Can I THINK OUTLOUD? (Now I can begin since my bitterness is out. So I'm sitting in my town home and I notice this decoration kind of deal on my wall. I know you have done that before too....noticed something on your wall for maybe the first time even though it has been there for years. I'll go home to my parents house in OH and say to my mom, "Hey mom, is that "whatever" new?" She will reply with, "No Jamie, that has always been there." And so it was with this little decoration in my town home. Gretchen and I have been married for 8 1/2 years and have lived in four different places. I'm sure we have had this little decoration thing the entire time we have been married. It has been on various walls in PA and now MN. It has become so common, I stopped noticing it until today. But anyway, I'm looking at this deal, and I look at what it says -- "In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straights (Proverbs 3:6)." "Make your path straights" literally means, "to remove obstacles." Its like driving down the road and potholes, cars, litter, pedestrians, various small animals, whatver it may be, are removed from the road. Your path is straight. So then I began to think about my life presently (as I'm steering at this decoration for like the first time) and I think to myself, "Why does my life seem full of obstacles right now? My path is not all that straight." I even began to think of many of my friends and how they have obstacles in their lives. So what is that all about? Honestly, I don't know. But I have come to some almost conclusions (I use that phrase as an escape clause in case I'm wrong). One, maybe I am not fully "acknowledging Him (God)." Maybe my path is cluttered with distractions, confusion, sin, warfare, etc. because I'm not acknowledging or recognizing God in any and every situation. Second, maybe I acknowledge God, but I don't trust Him enough (Proverbs 3:5). Maybe I focus too much time worrying about obstacles & straight paths and not enough time on God -- the one who removes the obstacles. So maybe my path could easily be straightened if I simply began to move forward. Maybe I'm more worried about making sure the entire road from where I'm at and where I want to be is completely smoothed out, repaved, and fixed before I travel one mile. But maybe I need to just move forward one mile at a time, trusting God & God alone to continue straightening out everything until I reach my eternal home. So what is the moral of all this? I don't know. Look at your decorations at home? Maybe. Or strive for more recognition of God. Obstacles are nothing to Him. But will we trust Him enough to remove them?