By GARY ANDREWS
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Looking back over my life and remembering the choices I made, I often wonder did I take the road less traveled. Being a senior citizen and looking back on decisions I made 40-50 years ago, and I am sure many of you do this also, did I make the correct choices to have the best life I could have?
I am not sure anyone could answer this question without some hesitation. As I did, most of us studied Robert Frost’s poem, “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood”, and never thought much about what this poem meant until we reached our later years. Actually the poem’s title is “The Road Not Taken” written around 1920, but I have always remembered it as “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood.”
Years later we are sitting at our kitchen table looking out through the window into the woods thinking, did I do what I was supposed to do or did I take the road most people take and follow instead of taking the road less traveled and become a leader?
Most of us in our youth, just as the youth of today, weren’t sure of what we wanted to do or which direction we wanted to go. Being a Christian and believing that the Lord would lead me where He wanted me to be was what I needed at a time I was in doubt and had much uncertainty of which direction I should go. Many of us were like Moses when the Lord told him to go and speak to the Pharaoh in Egypt and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
As many of us would do today, we would hesitate and come up with all kind of excuses because we do not believe in our ability or what we can do with the Lord’s help.
The Lord speaks to Moses in Exodus 4:11; The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Even though Moses continued to complain, the Lord made a way for Moses to adhere to the Lord’s instructions.
Now that I am in my retirement years I look back over my life and the career the Lord chose for me, I can only say that I went in a direction that I never thought I would. As I entered college, then went through the military, earned a degree in another field, the Lord knew I would eventually become a journalist and work in this field for 35 years. So many of us today are in the same situation that I am in wondering if the road we took was the one we wanted or the one the Lord provided for us. For me it was definitely the Lord that put me in my career path and I must tell you I have been thoroughly blessed because He controlled where I was going instead of me doing it my way.
Many of you will say that on your career path, “I did it my way”, and maybe you did. Even now we need to look at every incident that happened to us along this journey and say, “Did I really do it on my own or did the Lord lead me and guide me to where I am?”
“Two roads diverge into a yellow wood” and I, unaware at the time, chose to follow the Lord where He wanted me to go. Whether it was the road less traveled or the one most traveled I will always know that He was in the lead and without Him leading me I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Prayer: Almighty God, thank you for your divine leadership. Thank you for the life you have given me and it is my prayer that I may provide leadership through you for someone else. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – Exodus 3:11-15; Monday – Romans 12:3-8; Tuesday – Hosea 10:1-4; Wednesday – Acts 18:24-28; Thursday – Psalm 18:43-50; Friday – Ephesians 4:11-13; Saturday – James 1:2-8.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals.com.