This was supposed to be simple; after all I have hiked the butte countless times. In all those hikes, I had never tried the base trail.  One weekend, I decided to shake up my routine. How hard can it be to walk around the base of a butte? Seems pretty obvious, right? Wrong! Four miles later, I was back where I started, but not because I completed the loop, because I chickened out half way through and had to double back.

I feel like I need to defend myself a little bit. The signage on this trail was so poor. When you get to the backside of the butte it gets really sparse and the path is harder to follow. Add in that it is pretty isolated with fewer people, and my fear of wildlife sightings. My fight or flight skills were on overload!  Instead of staying in quasi-remote isolation, I turned around and headed back toward the safety of people.

The following week I brought reinforcements, my hiking buddy.  A second set of eyes with added protection from human or animal predators; safety in numbers ladies. With the help of my friend, the base butte trail was completed! Albeit with some confusion and back tracking, but we made it!

“Friends come and go, but a true friend sticks by you like family.”

Proverbs 18:24 The Message

If I had tried that route solo again, I just may have turned around again for the safety of the clear direction, well traveled trails, and marked paths.  But this is why God gives us the gift of friendship; someone who knows the way, or is willing to get lost with us.  There is safety in numbers. 

This same safety has also been provided at multiple less scary times of my life. I think back to when I needed to create the very website you are now reading. I knew God wanted me to do it.  But it felt daunting for this technically challenged mama, who had a hard enough time just setting up a simple blog.  Creating my very own website, that just felt impossible. 

What did God do?

God brought me another gifted friend that had just set up her own website months earlier.  We spent half a Sunday playing with the format, choosing photos. In fact Allison gets all the credit for everything, even my website’s feature photo. She made this gentle suggestion multiple times, but I just kept stubbornly trying other photos… Until I finally listened… and YES mamas, she was right. The photo was perfect.  Thank you Allison!

Mamas, with each ‘big ask’ in life, God has always brought me a friend to walk alongside and help. I have never been alone.  

Remember this mamas in the valley moments of your life.

God always provides.