When traveling the road of our lives, it’s best not to look down at our feet.

A few evenings ago, I decided to take off on a bike ride. It had been a busy week, and I needed to relax; the beautiful, cool evening seemed like the perfect time to take off for a bit.

As I was traveling down a mostly-deserted stretch of highway, I decided to try to see if I could ride with my bike staying on the 2″ wide stripe along the edge of the lane I was in. However, try as I might, I couldn’t stay on it. I wobbled this way and that, veering off to the right and to the left of the line. I noticed that for the few seconds that I’d stay on the path, I could tell a difference in how the bike rode – the ride felt smoother because instead of the rough asphalt, I was riding on the smooth, thick paint.

I thought this to be rather odd, because I normally don’t have trouble staying on a path or in a straight line.

I came upon a stretch of highway where the edge of the road was chipped away from something running off the edge. As I focused on it approaching me, I noticed something. My ride was much smoother – I was riding on the line, staying within its tiny bounds without paying it much notice.

I realized that when I had been focusing on the line – watching where my tire met the stripe, I couldn’t stay on the line no matter how hard I tried. However, when I kept my focus farther down the road, I could stay on the line without much trouble.

I think that our lives are that way. If we live for today, if we live for the “right here, right now,” we flail all over the place. We stray to the left and to the right, unable to keep on the path.

However, if we focus down the road, if we focus on the goal, it is much easier to stay within the bounds of the line, of the path that we’re on.

This applies to many different areas; if we have a goal of saving up money for the down-payment for a house, it’s easier to ignore the temptation for a spur-of-the-moment splurge on a new TV. If we have a goal of raising a family, it’s easier to ignore the desires of taking a job that, while it might allow us to travel to all different parts of the world, will keep us away from home.

Likewise, if we focus on our Savior, it will be much easier to follow the path that He has for our lives, instead of being disturbed by the “pot holes” of life, whatever they may be. By looking long-term, things that would normally have thrown us to the right or to the left lose their power over us.