take me sailing, father

I have an analogy. I was cleaning my father's sailboat so we could go sailing like I wanted to do. I get my soap and I scrub and scrub with all different kinds of brushes and sponges. At the onset, my father had told me just what to use. I worked for a couple hours on the boat using everything except what he assured me would work best. Later, my father comes to check my progress and I say I just can't get it right. This is the best I can do. He just kinda laughs and picks up the scrubby pad he had recommended I use to start with and simply rubs away spots that I had scrubbed at repeatedly with no success. In the analogy, my father is God and the sailboat is my life. The scrubby pad, of course, is the Bible which is the way he has told me how to do it. The situation is the same; I still do things every which a way except for the way in which God has assured me is the tried and true method to get to the things I want, like going sailing. In other words, your Heavenly Father wants what is best for you. He wants to take you sailing right through life, and he knows how best to get there. He is content to let you have your independence and do it your own way, but you can save yourself a lot of work and do a better job if you will just follow his guidelines.