I Saw The Light...Blue Lights

Girlfriends, I saw the light…the blue lights that is. 

Here’s the low-down.  Clay (hubby), Amy (sis), both babies, and I had just eaten supper at the local hamburger place.  Clay was on his work truck and left the parking lot first.  Amy and I were dealing with the sleepy, savage beasts in the carseats behind us.  We were feverishly handing pacis, teddy bears, and blankets from the front seats while we tried intermittently singing to the top our lungs, making faces over our shoulders, and finding lullaby-ish music on the radio.  (You lose all dignity when you have children.)  As I turned my attention to actually driving us home, I turned the keys and realized there was a lady sitting in the storefront windows in front of us eating her supper...and getting a good laugh off of us.  Even though I was in no mood to be entertainment for the evening and could have gone all night without her giggling at us...I mustered the last Christian bone in my crazed body and intentionally decided (this will be important later) to not blind her (although I have to admit it would have felt good) and wait until I had pointed the car away before turning on the lights.  I bet you can guess what happened next.  Yep…between gossiping with Amy and dealing with babies, I forgot to turn the lights on at all.  We left that parking lot (thankfully onto a well-lit, highly traveled avenue) and headed home.  That’s when I saw the blue lights.  I knew immediately.  My lights.  Neither that giggly lady in the storefront window nor anyone else on the road had seen them. 

This is when being gentle and quiet came oh so easily for me.  Something about those blue lights puts the fear of God in me.  And, thankfully, as if on cue, the back seat became quiet!  That’s proof that God has a sense of humor…because as soon as we were headed home…they wailed like crazies again.  Anywho…the policeman was kind enough to realize that I was a frazzled, crazed momma who had made a very stupid mistake and wished us well as he sent us on our way.  As I carefully (with my lights ON) headed home, I thought, “I’m gonna blind the mess out of whoever is in front of me next time I turn on this car!!!”

Girlfriends, that’s a lesson to me!  I intentionally made a decision to try to do the kind, courteous thing.  I deliberately tried to be a kind soul.  I was trying to do what I would want done to me.  But, as you can see, that doesn’t get you peanuts.  The rule of the road is that you have lights on before you move your vehicle at night.  That’s the rule…and there’s a reason for that.

It’s the same for life.  Just because I intentionally live in a manner that seems good or makes sense to me, it doesn’t mean I’m right.  I can be doing all the good in the world and still be dead wrong.  It’s a fact that I can’t let my heart be my guide.  Scripture is very clear on that.

Jeremiah 17:9 (ASV)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

So, if I can’t go by what’s in my heart, what can I do?  I can follow Scripture.  If I want to be a Christian woman, I have to know what it takes to be obedient to my Father in Heaven.  I have to make sure that I don’t add to or leave out anything He says.  If I do, I’m leaning on my wisdom…and we all know where that gets me.

Quietly Gentled,

Carrie.