On mountain at a time!! That is how I will do it, one mountain at a time!!!

Good evening, I pray your Wednesday has been a great one. I apologize getting this posted so late, I had to lay down and rest this afternoon as I developed a huge headache and became very tired! I am feeling some better now and hopefully the headache that remains will so vanish into the night. 

In prayer I asked God to continue to bless each of us with his love and tenderness. I asked him to touch with healing hands and a gentle heart,  those in need. I thanked Him for the miracle of answered prayers as my friend who has struggled this week after the amputation of her leg.  Thank you Lord for allowing her to use your strength as her own and for allowing her the faith to trust in You for a healing. God I love you, thank  you for loving me. In the name of Jesus Christ I lift you name on high in praise. Amen.

This is a lesson we should all take part in," Rome was not built in a day" 

One Mountain At A Time

"That's it! I'm through! I'll not take another step!" 

William threw his tired teenage body to the ground in the sparse shade of the first tree they had seen in several days. Caroline stood beside him anxiously, torn between love and loyalty for her older brother and the fact that the pioneer wagon train was moving on without them. 

She nudged him gently with her foot. "Come along, William. We don't want to fall behind." 

"I don't care. Let them go. I'll just stay here the rest of my life." 

"I shouldn't think that would be very long, since you have no food or blankets." 

"I don't care," William said, closing his eyes against the dust and heat and, perhaps, life itself. Then he added softly, "It's too far. I can't do it." 

Caroline was startled by what she was hearing from her brother. They had been through so much together -- their mother's death during childbirth in England; the family's immigration to America via a perilous ocean voyage during which their younger sister died; working with their father to build a new life for themselves in America; and then their father's accidental death just a few weeks before the start of the trek west. 

They had walked, side-by-side, every step of the way from New York to... well, wherever this place was. And through it all, William had been strong and courageous. Caroline had leaned on his strength, even come to depend upon it. But now, she had to be the strong one. 

"You can't leave me alone, William," she said. "Not now." 

"I'm not leaving you," William insisted. "I'm staying. If you go, you'll be leaving me." 

She paused a moment, watching the dust settle on the parched ground behind the last wagon as it rumbled up the trail. 

"All right," she said at last. "But at least walk with me the rest of the day. Then you can come back here, if you like." 

That seemed like a small request to William. Surely he could walk just one more day. It was the least he could do for Caroline. 

"One more day," he agreed. "Then I'm through." 

When he arose the next morning, Caroline wasn't in her blanket. He finally found her on a small rise just outside the camp. 

"See that hill off in the distance there?" she said as he approached her. He turned to look. 

"Yes," he said. "I see it." 

"I wish you would walk that far with me," she said. "Then you can go back to your tree." 

William continued looking at the hill. It didn't seem to be such a great distance. Surely he could walk with Caroline that far. She was, after all, his sister. 

"I'll walk with you to the hill," he agreed. "But no further." 

It took two days for the pioneer company to reach the hill, and by then Caroline was focused on a range of mountains looming out there on the western horizon. She persuaded her brother to walk with her "just that far." And then to a distant grove of trees beyond that. And then to the river beyond that. And then to the next range of mountains. And then, suddenly, their journey was over. Caroline had coaxed William into walking with her more than 1,000 miles. 

She didn't do it by convincing him to walk 1,000 miles all it once. She did it by urging him to walk with her one more day. 

Life often confronts us with journeys that seem long, and obstacles that appear to be overwhelming. It can be discouraging to look down the road at the enormity of the task before us and to consider all that needs to be done. We need to remember that we rarely accomplish any great thing all at once. 

Rather, we do it just as Caroline and William did. One hill, one river, one mountain at a time.