It wasn’t two hours after my family arrived at our cabin in the snowy Blue Mountains last weekend that my teenage son, Tyler, and one of his best friends, came back to the cabin on one snowmobile. They had left with two.

Tyler announced to me with a bit of trepidation in his voice, “Dad, we have some bad news.”

Uh-oh, I thought, this doesn’t sound good. Tyler’s eyes look a bit terrified and his friend was hiding skittishly around the corner where I couldn’t see his face.

Soon I learned that his friend had caught the side of a dead tree with his sled, had snapped the shock absorber in two on the left ski, snapped two steel rods that steer the ski, and disabled the snowmobile out in the wilderness.

The boys were safe. That was good. But how were we going to get a snowmobile back to the cabin with one ski? I didn’t have a clue. Tyler didn’t have a clue either.

The friend was very apologetic and horribly embarrassed. He was ready to make amends. He is a wonderful lad and I felt for him. It was easy to forgive him.

But what were we to do? We had a difficult dilemma to solve.

I was praying for insight and what I heard was, “God will show the way thought by thought.”

We drove out to the disabled sled to figure out a plan.

When we got there, the situation looked about hopeless. We had no parts. The machine weighed 500 pounds. It wasn’t like we could pick it up and carry it home.

It was tempting to get bothered, angry, and upset over the whole ordeal. I had many other plans for the day other than fixing broken down snowmobiles! But I didn’t get upset. I thought of the times my dad saved me from trouble in yesteryears when I messed up. It was my turn to do the same.

I wanted to work with these boys in a healing way that brought us closer together and not turn a potentially wonderful weekend into an unhappy time. We could learn life-lessons together that taught us how to get out of difficult situations, and how to prevent them. A lot of my prayer was to have the right attitude, ensuring that I expressed patience, understanding, kindness and care.

After a couple of hours of experimenting, tying ropes here and there, and running to the shop for tools, we came up with a plan to hold the broken ski tenuously in place. Tyler managed to drive it a thousand feet, but kaput, off the ski slid again. We had a mile to go.

We tipped the sled on its side to look at the damage. We were all clueless on what to do. I looked up and said to the boys, “Think. Think. There is always a solution. We just need to think and hear it. No matter what problem you ever face in life, there is always a solution. Just think and you’ll hear it.”

After a few moments of silence, Tyler’s friend came up with an idea that sounded remotely hopeful. It included tying a tree branch between the two front skis to keep them parallel with each other. After a bit of scurrying in the forest, we found a branch, tied it on and hoped for the best.

And guess what? It worked!

Driving at a turtle’s pace, Tyler got the sled all the way back to our shed. It seemed like a miracle. The sled was a pretty hilarious sight, but hey, the plan succeeded! A full afternoon of praying, listening, and working together as one paid off. There was a solution and God gave it to us.

I still have to get the sled fixed, but that will work out. Tyler’s friend very safely, conservatively, and ably, drove one of our other snowmobiles the next two days of our time in the mountains, with nothing but joy and happiness to feel in the end. No more “bad news” to report.

We all learned some good lessons from the experience, drew closer together as a family, and are better people for it. God revealed a plan thought by thought…