Grace means undeserved kindness. It is the gift of God to man the moment he sees he is unworthy of God's favor.
~Dwight L. Moody
~Dwight L. Moody
Wednesday is our errand day each week currently. This week I planned to pay my electric bill at the drive through window, drop off items at the first of two consignment sales at 9:00 am, and then pay my dentist a balance not covered by our insurance. Then the plan was to go on to the health food stores and my daughter's piano lesson.
My daughter has had a cold and has not been getting up early, but she did make it that morning. We made it to pay the electric company, but I noticed as my window was down that the van sounded rough without any specific sound. We then made our way and while I was driving to the consignment sale, something crazy happened. My foot was on the accelerator, but it felt almost like it was stuck, but it was not. Also, the van was still running but it was like it had slipped into neutral and was losing speed, but I could step down on the accelerator and it would not rev or do anything. Just as I was looking for a place where I might need to pull over, it just corrected everything.
We made it to the consignment sale and from there to the dentist office, but then it would shudder and stall after it started, whether I was giving it more gas or not. Then it would not start. Then it would. Finally, it kept running long enough that I made it to the closest gas station and put in some fuel injector cleaner, hoping that was the problem. I just sat there, trying to keep it running while that circulated a few minutes, while I called my husband, who was in town, so to speak. We decided that it might be the wisest decision to turn back and stop at the garage. So, I prayed asking my Lord to make it work so we could get there.
Dragon Heart ran absolutely like a dream all the way. I talked to the mechanic with my husband on the phone and since there was no engine light at any time, there were no codes and he would be taking a guess as to what it might be, but he did suggest the fuel pump, which was one I considered too, but I do not like how much they cost to replace. Then he suggested that I could just have gotten some bad gas or water in the tank and to stop at an auto place to get an fuel additive to fix that. He told me that it would be fine, even though I had just added the fuel injector cleaner. So, that is what I did and the van was just fine the entire time before and after.
Since we had left the house so early, we still had time to shop before going to my daughter's piano lesson, her last lesson before the judging on Saturday so it was very important to go. I decided that we would go on with the day's plans. I was turning right at a red light onto a four lane divided highway. I thought that the three approaching vehicles were in the left lane and I usually check twice before turning, but something made me wait just a bit before turning into the right lane. As I stepped on the gas, I realized that I barely missed one of the vehicles! That unnerved me but, again, I just thanked my Lord and went on.
We did everything we needed to do and arrived back home without one problem. I was still haunted by how close I was to causing an accident but everything was well. My daughter decided that despite her headache, she wanted to go to youth group in the evening. When my husband is home, he takes her, but he needed to work late all week so it fell to me.
Again, no problems all the way there. However, on the way back home....
I chose to take newer shorter route, which is under construction to make into a divided four lane road. It was started over a year ago and, for whatever reason, it has not been worked on for months, but it is still considered a construction zone with just a 35 mph speed limit. I was not paying attention to my speed because it is not a busy road at that time in the evening, which resulted in a deputy pulling me over. He asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I thought 40 to 45 mph and he said his laser read 47 mph but then I accelerated to 51. Ouch! Now 15 mph over the speed limit is a serious fine, but worse is that fines are doubled in construction areas in our state, even if there is no real construction being done (for months).
I was as polite as I could be, because I wanted my daughter to learn the proper way to show respect to and obey a law enforcement officer, especially with all the bad press of late. I fully expected to get a sizable fine, that I was going to have to tell my husband about when I got home, but instead the deputy only gave me a warning. He said the last time I had a ticket was in 2005 (and that time I was purposely speeding because my daughter, then four, and I were late in meeting my husband for lunch).
I rarely ever speed, I rarely ever not look three times before pulling out into a lane, and my 14-year-old mini van rarely has any problems, but it all happened in one single day. When I got home for the night, I told my husband of the rest of the day that he did not know, including the speeding thing just minutes away from home, and promptly prepared for bed to pray before I fell asleep. I was not terribly frazzled, but enough was enough for the day. As my Lord would have it, He placed something on my heart and I could not fall asleep as soon as I hoped.
I felt very strongly that I was to write a letter to the deputy to thank him for doing his largely thankless job to keep us all safe and for having the opportunity to demonstrate for my future driver how she should properly conduct herself should a law enforcement officer pull her over. I mentioned that my daughter has always been uncomfortable with people in uniforms, so I appreciated his professionalism. Also, I thank him for showing me grace when I was in the wrong and deserving of the fine, writing that all the other times I have driven within the speed limit does not wipe away the one time I did not, which reminded me of how God's grace works, that the good we do does not compensate for even one bad thing. I felt God wanted to speak to him through me.
So, my Lord, protected us and showed us His grace three times and then asked me to do just one thing for Him. It was a good reminder of how He always does more for us than He asks of us.
My daughter has had a cold and has not been getting up early, but she did make it that morning. We made it to pay the electric company, but I noticed as my window was down that the van sounded rough without any specific sound. We then made our way and while I was driving to the consignment sale, something crazy happened. My foot was on the accelerator, but it felt almost like it was stuck, but it was not. Also, the van was still running but it was like it had slipped into neutral and was losing speed, but I could step down on the accelerator and it would not rev or do anything. Just as I was looking for a place where I might need to pull over, it just corrected everything.
We made it to the consignment sale and from there to the dentist office, but then it would shudder and stall after it started, whether I was giving it more gas or not. Then it would not start. Then it would. Finally, it kept running long enough that I made it to the closest gas station and put in some fuel injector cleaner, hoping that was the problem. I just sat there, trying to keep it running while that circulated a few minutes, while I called my husband, who was in town, so to speak. We decided that it might be the wisest decision to turn back and stop at the garage. So, I prayed asking my Lord to make it work so we could get there.
Dragon Heart ran absolutely like a dream all the way. I talked to the mechanic with my husband on the phone and since there was no engine light at any time, there were no codes and he would be taking a guess as to what it might be, but he did suggest the fuel pump, which was one I considered too, but I do not like how much they cost to replace. Then he suggested that I could just have gotten some bad gas or water in the tank and to stop at an auto place to get an fuel additive to fix that. He told me that it would be fine, even though I had just added the fuel injector cleaner. So, that is what I did and the van was just fine the entire time before and after.
Since we had left the house so early, we still had time to shop before going to my daughter's piano lesson, her last lesson before the judging on Saturday so it was very important to go. I decided that we would go on with the day's plans. I was turning right at a red light onto a four lane divided highway. I thought that the three approaching vehicles were in the left lane and I usually check twice before turning, but something made me wait just a bit before turning into the right lane. As I stepped on the gas, I realized that I barely missed one of the vehicles! That unnerved me but, again, I just thanked my Lord and went on.
We did everything we needed to do and arrived back home without one problem. I was still haunted by how close I was to causing an accident but everything was well. My daughter decided that despite her headache, she wanted to go to youth group in the evening. When my husband is home, he takes her, but he needed to work late all week so it fell to me.
Again, no problems all the way there. However, on the way back home....
I chose to take newer shorter route, which is under construction to make into a divided four lane road. It was started over a year ago and, for whatever reason, it has not been worked on for months, but it is still considered a construction zone with just a 35 mph speed limit. I was not paying attention to my speed because it is not a busy road at that time in the evening, which resulted in a deputy pulling me over. He asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I thought 40 to 45 mph and he said his laser read 47 mph but then I accelerated to 51. Ouch! Now 15 mph over the speed limit is a serious fine, but worse is that fines are doubled in construction areas in our state, even if there is no real construction being done (for months).
I was as polite as I could be, because I wanted my daughter to learn the proper way to show respect to and obey a law enforcement officer, especially with all the bad press of late. I fully expected to get a sizable fine, that I was going to have to tell my husband about when I got home, but instead the deputy only gave me a warning. He said the last time I had a ticket was in 2005 (and that time I was purposely speeding because my daughter, then four, and I were late in meeting my husband for lunch).
I rarely ever speed, I rarely ever not look three times before pulling out into a lane, and my 14-year-old mini van rarely has any problems, but it all happened in one single day. When I got home for the night, I told my husband of the rest of the day that he did not know, including the speeding thing just minutes away from home, and promptly prepared for bed to pray before I fell asleep. I was not terribly frazzled, but enough was enough for the day. As my Lord would have it, He placed something on my heart and I could not fall asleep as soon as I hoped.
I felt very strongly that I was to write a letter to the deputy to thank him for doing his largely thankless job to keep us all safe and for having the opportunity to demonstrate for my future driver how she should properly conduct herself should a law enforcement officer pull her over. I mentioned that my daughter has always been uncomfortable with people in uniforms, so I appreciated his professionalism. Also, I thank him for showing me grace when I was in the wrong and deserving of the fine, writing that all the other times I have driven within the speed limit does not wipe away the one time I did not, which reminded me of how God's grace works, that the good we do does not compensate for even one bad thing. I felt God wanted to speak to him through me.
So, my Lord, protected us and showed us His grace three times and then asked me to do just one thing for Him. It was a good reminder of how He always does more for us than He asks of us.
My Lord, I cannot thank you enough for Your protection and grace. Thank you so much, my Lord, that I did not cause an accident in which people could have injured, including my daughter. The ticket would have been nothing in comparison to that, but You still showed grace that I did not deserve there as well. Thank you, My Lord.
