Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him ?alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the
blindfold
until the rays of the morning sun shine through it.

He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a
MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must
come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild
beasts
must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm.

The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat
stoically,
never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a
man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his
blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father
is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes,
all we have to do is reach out to Him.

If you liked this story, pass it on. If not, you took off your blindfold
before dawn...
Work for the Lord, the pay isn't much but the retirement is out of this
world!!!