Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

— Proverbs 3:5-6

I cannot count the times my mother quoted this verse to me—and with good reason. I was heading down a proverbial path that would only cause me disappointment or pain—yet I was too young to understand. Even though my own understanding seemed good to me at the time, I slowly learned to seek the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Sin has polluted our willingness to submit to the Lord. The devil tempts us to trust our own way and intuition. God seeks to draw us to himself because he knows best. We are constantly caught in that tug-of-war, leaning one way and then the other. There was a time when I thought I knew it all, but the one thing I did not know was that God had a better way that he was waiting to show me. God’s Word taught me to trust him with the directions.

We are taught to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). I need to pray this prayer more often:

Father, I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what I have done and not done. I have not loved you with my heart, soul, mind, and strength; nor have I loved my neighbor as myself. Forgive me, for Jesus’ sake—that I may be a cleansed servant of yours in the world. Amen.