Follow the Leader

"Look at all the people!" exclaimed Austin. "This traffic is terrible!""Yes," said Dad. "Today's parade better be good, or I'll wish I'd stayed home." He inched forward with the traffic. "A lot of cars are turning here. Looks like a good idea to me. Maybe they know of a place to park around the corner." He made a right turn, following the car in front of him.Immediately the traffic speeded up, but instead of finding a place to park, they found themselves on a long ramp leading to a freeway. "Oh no," Dad groaned. "I didn't see the sign for the freeway! Now we'll have to go a few miles before we can turn around." He scowled at the car ahead of him. "Thanks a lot, mister. You led me wrong!"Mom laughed. "So it's his fault?""What about the car behind us?" asked Austin. "I noticed that they followed along too. Is that your fault, Dad?"Dad grinned. "Nope. They should have watched where they were going!" Everybody laughed."Hey, Austin, Dad sounds like you," said Austin's brother David. "Last week you said it wasn't your fault you got in trouble at the church picnic because you were just doing what some older kids were doing. At the same time, you didn't think it was your fault when Gracie copied what you did." "All right, all right. We've already dealt with that problem, so let's not keep dredging it up," said Mom.Dad nodded. "There's a lesson for us here though. We tend to forget that God has given each of us the ability to make our own decisions, and He wants us to do that instead of blindly following the crowd.""Yes," said Mom. "He's also given us the Holy Spirit, who guides us in how to live in a way that shows others we belong to Jesus and have His love in our hearts. He should be the example we follow in everything we do."They were approaching an off ramp. "I don't know about that guy ahead of me," said Dad, "but I'm going to get off here and turn around." As they left the highway, Austin looked to see if the car behind them would follow. It did. -Hazel W. Marett