By Beth Pinyerd

This coming Monday is our celebration of Columbus Day! Christopher Columbus is the explorer who is credited with the discovery of America in 1492.
All of us remember and know “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety two (1492),” and as young students, we memorized this poem and put it to heart. To sail the ocean blue, Christopher Columbus planned and constructed the three ships, the Santa Maria, Pinta and Nina.
Christopher Columbus used a variety of necessary tools, like magnetic compasses and maps, in making his journeys. He studied geography and gleaned information from other sailors. When teachers get to the unit on Columbus, we like to teach map skills to our class of students.
We may guide our students to draw a map of the classroom, playground, etc. Students like to use their compasses to show us where north, south, east and west are.
In ministering to children, teachers and parents like to guide their children to know that the Bible is our spiritual compass and road map for traveling on our life’s journey.
Our loving Heavenly Father gives us a life map which never changes in truth. The Bible will never point us down the wrong road. It will always point us in the same direction toward Jesus.
In teaching children, we mention that sometimes we use feelings. This is not good, because our feelings change constantly. Even though we might feel good about something, it might not be the right path or direction for us to follow.
Just because something is popular or everyone is doing it doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do. Tomorrow, or even next week, that trend might change.
In teaching young children, I have explained to them that sometimes we get lost on our trips to see friends or family.
After taking a wrong road or getting lost, we decide it is best to get out a map to find our way back to the right road.
We may have done that in hiking or camping in the woods. We might have to pull out a compass to show us the right direction to go.
Sometimes, we think we know the right direction to go, because we have traveled that way before. But, even if we have traveled that direction before, it is good to double-check a map.
That is the way it is with life, even if we have traveled that life journey before. It is good to go back to the Bible, which can remind us to make the right choices. Its promises are true, and God will direct us in the way he wants us to go.
Our Heavenly Father is so gracious in giving us the Bible to use it daily as a spiritual compass or map to know which path or road we should follow.