What do you call a guy who won't listen to his family, steals food, starts fights, and then runs and hides? Most people would call him a troublemaker. But you can call him Hiroo Onada. Onada was the last Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II ended. It took him 29 years to stop fighting and go home. So why did he keep fighting?

Onada had been trained to obey orders. His last order was to spy on American soldiers in the Philippines. Since no one told him to stop, Onada kept on going even though it meant hiding in the jungle and stealing food to stay alive. His family tried to convince him to come home, but he wouldn't listen. Finally, the Japanese government sent his former commander to order him home in 1974. Officially released from his assignment, Onada reconnected with family and lived another 40 years after his surrender.

Was Hiroo Onada a stubborn man? Maybe. But he also chose to obey orders, which is admirable. That's something a selfish wooden boy needed to learn in today's Odyssey adventure, ?Pinocchio: The Tale of a Foolish Puppet, Part 1.? From the moment Geppetto carved him from a block of wood, Pinocchio made bad decisions. His worst was listening to the Fox and the Cat, which cost him all of his money . . . and maybe his father, Geppetto. Is it too late to make things right?

Pinocchio could have listened to the voices of wisdom in his life: Geppetto, the cricket and the owl. But he didn?t. Each of us has decisions to make as well. We can be foolish, like Pinocchio, or we can follow King Solomon's example in 1 Kings 15 and ask God for wisdom. The choice we make will have a big effect on our lives.