While visiting my sister Dionna’s family in Tyler, Texas, my niece Madi taught me a lot about setting and achieving soul-stretching, short-term goals. Madi turns four years old in three months. She is a bright, fun, strong-minded little girl. Like most of us, Madi prefers fun punctuated by comfort. Dionna expertly navigates the motivational spectrum with Madi, and during round one of negotiations, successfully proposed a winning suggestion for Madi’s participation in a 1.3 mile loop trail hike: a completion donut.
The previous day, after dropping big brother Jake off at school, Dionna, Madi, Abi in her stroller and I walked along a river path Dionna wanted to explore. The path was paved and the path was quite pretty. Madi reached her limit and let us know. We’d walked around a third of a mile before heading back.
On this day, Dionna and I wanted to check out a nearby waterfall hike—Whispering Pines Trail. Being in a forest sounded so wonderful to me since I live in a forestless place. We dropped Jake off at school and headed towards the trail. About five miles out, Dionna told Madi that we planned to walk to a waterfall and if Madi could walk the whole way by herself she would get a donut afterwards.
“Donuts?” Madi asked.
“Yes. We’ll go get donuts afterwards if you walk the whole way.”
“I love pink sprinkle donuts.”
And the deal was done. No push back. No further questions. Madi settled in with complete trust in her mother’s promise.
The Trust Hike
We arrived at the trailhead and followed the path down into the forest. Dionna strapped Abi to her chest and Madi reached for my hand. Admittedly, I questioned the power of the donut prize as we began and wondered how everything would play out.
As we turned onto the loop, Dionna pointed to three deer leaping gracefully across the river and through the trees. They’d heard us coming.
We meandered across wooden bridges and across tricky tree roots. Madi tripped and fell on one of the protruding roots, skinning her knees. I wondered if her donut resolve would dissolve. She required a bandaid for comfort, which Dionna produced, then continued on the path. While futilely looking for more deer, she finally determined that all the “deer ran away because of my skweaming.”
Checking in on her progress
We took a couple of breaks on the trust hike to see how far along we were on the trail and how much longer we had left to go. We stopped to look at cool leaves and pine cones, to follow butterflies’ flight, to watch a woodpecker pecking. A little green snake slithered across my toes and everyone else tried to see it as it zoomed across the path to safety. We looked at mushrooms growing on tree trunks and fallen trees and the holes they left in the earth when they fell. Madi fully experienced it all but never lost sight of her real goal: get to the waterfall then get to the donuts.
And I experienced the walk more fully because of Madi’s perspectives. At one point, Madi burst into this little monologue about how amazing Heavenly Father is for creating all of the beautiful things we saw on our hike and how happy she was to see it all. Her pure gratitude felt celestial.
After nearly an hour, we did reach the waterfall! A little stream splashed merrily over the edge and babbled for us.
The hike’s goal completed: The waterfall!
“We did it!” Madi felt exultant. She posed for the requisite pictures, satisfied that donuts were next on the list. She mentioned donuts, specifically pink sprinkle donuts, just to confirm the group’s intentions. Yes, we just needed to return to the van and then drive to the donut shop. Luckily, we had actually gone the long way to the waterfall so followed the path a hundred feet back to the crossroads. We returned to the van in a flash!
We googled the nearest donut shop and drove straight to it. We arrived at nearly noon. Dionna and I quickly noticed that the sprinkled donuts were all gone as Madi slowly looked through the donut case. The donut lady must have sensed our mounting concern (well, I had mounting concern, Dionna seemed pretty calm) and asked if she could put pink or chocolate sprinkles on one of the glazed donuts.
Yes! Happiness all around.
How readily do I agree to trust mortality’s hike?
As I chuckled later about that experience, the Savior’s words came to mind.
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little , ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall himself as this little , the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Madi submitted to her mother’s will in doing the hike, motivated by absolute trust in her mother’s promise of a delicious donut. The Lord promises all that His Father hath if I, like a child, submit to His will with absolute trust in His promised reward. Do I? Have I settled in to mortality’s hike with complete trust in my Savior?
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