I designed a Prayer Walk for the upcoming Living Proof Live (Beth Moore) event in Springfield, IL. (If you’d like to take a virtual walk through, check out the photos and instructions here.) My youngest daughter and I had visited the park a few weeks earlier to take scouting notes of the best route and places to stop along the way. Since our park visit followed a downpour of rain, we had to take off our shoes and wade through the paved pathways. As we puddle-jumped this way and that, I scrawled notes and was a bit concerned I wouldn’t be able to read my writing later.

I filled in the gaps between my messy notes and unfocused memories and created a one-page guide to the Prayer Walk. I greeted the first two women who arrived, handed them guides and added the basics of where to begin and in what direction to proceed toward the second stop. When the next woman arrived, I quickly gave her a guide but no additional instructions because another woman pulled up and had some questions about the event. We finished talked, and I decided to leave the guides in an obvious place and take my camera around the Prayer Walk locations to share the journey with our group on Facebook. However, I didn’t want to intrude on anyone’s prayer experience, so I glanced ahead on the trail to find the woman who had recently started to make sure I was aware of where she was.

I couldn’t find her.

I searched the trail through several stations and still didn’t see her. Where could she have gone? There’s really nowhere to hide at this park. I began to scan a broader area…and finally found her! She was on the opposite end of the Prayer Walk, going in the opposite direction. The Prayer Walk was designed as a large loop, and she was doing it backwards? I tried to quietly call her name, but she couldn’t hear me, so I started jogging after her. Once I found her, she laughed and explained her confusion. She said she had misread the directions. I got her back on the right track and jumped a little ahead of her to take the photos.

Then I decided to figure out how she misread the directions. I like maps, and I’m pretty good at directions, so I was curious how she got confused. As I was creating the guide, I tried to make the instructions very clear, because I know not everyone is comfortable with following directions.

It didn’t take long for me to realize: the problem wasn’t a woman misreading instructions. The problem was the way I wrote them. Yes, it made sense to me, but when I reread them with fresh eyes, they weren’t as clear as I thought they were. I had confidently created the Prayer Walk directions—confidently created them with confusion!

Of course, I could simply clarify to others as they arrived, so it wasn’t a big problem, but it made me laugh. How many times am I certain I’ve done something well or that I’m aware and well-informed about something, yet I later discover that my confidence wasn’t as sure-footed as I thought?

Just a reminder that pride can not only lead me astray, but if I’m not attentive, it can lead others astray, too!