Our family of five, mom and dad and three boys, well we love nature. We were often out walking around in the forest, fishing, hunting, we liked to have fires out in the bush and cook hot dogs.

On this particular fall Sunday afternoon we were out walking in the bush, the boys were still in elementary school, so a long time ago, all of the sudden my husband said, “Stop.”

The boys and I stopped and looked around, we did not see or hear anything, but he looked over at me and said “Get the boys back to the truck. Back up slowly and when you get about twenty yards away, just start running for the truck. There is a bear, I think it has been stalking us along the bush line.”

I turned around and gave the boys my mom’s in panic mode look and said, “Obey your father, NOW” and we turned around, walked roughly twenty yards and then made a bee line dash for the truck.

I got to the truck first, opened the door and told the boys to get in. When my boys caught up to me, one of them said, “Thanks for saving us mom! You passed us back there and left us to get eaten."

Realizing at that moment that I had actually done that, I had actually left my children behind to get eaten by the bear, and just ran and saved myself. I was horrified and humbled, truly not one of my finest moments.

That was over twenty something years ago and my boys still remind me about it – “Oh ya moms going to save us… remember the bear?”

So what exactly happened that day? Well, I think instinct, human instinct and self-preservation took over and I just ran. Oblivious to what was around me, I ran to save myself.

I think that is why God tells us we have to be so grounded in Him. We may not feel like reading our Bible, we may not feel like praying, or forgiving or .... but we need to because when life happens, human preservation, human instincts, take over. We will either turn to God for direction because it has been our habit to do so or we will try to save ourselves.

I am praying that now, since I have been a Christian for 30+ years, these principles are solidly grounded into me, so that if anyone today said “Run!” I would take the time to look around and see who I need to bring with me, but you know – it is the chance you take if you are going to “run with me”…