I suppose it was inevitable that once I taught on the topic of thankfulness, God would allow some testing to see if I had really absorbed the lesson I shared with others.
Today, I got in a car accident. This is my second accident in eight months. Honestly - I've driven for 22 years and have been in 4 accidents in that entire time. It's just two of them happen to be this year. It was my fault - I rearended someone while talkng on my cell phone. I shouldn't have answered it. Talking and driving are just not a good combo.
So, as I sat sobbing on the side of the road, I can say I felt pretty discouraged, particularly since the day started out so well. I got a call from the head editor who asked me to do another weekly feature. He also asked me to do the front page for Christmas Day! I couldn't believe it - I was so excited I think I actually squealed when I got off the phone. Then I went to interview some people for a different article. It is going to be on a chapel in a senior citizen home. The ladies I talked to were so sweet - I enjoyed meeting them so much.
It just seemed like such a huge drop from the top of the mountain to the puddle in the valley. My first thought was, "I give up!" But an interesting thing happened while we waited and waited and then waited some more for the police officer to show up (I think it was about 90 minutes total). I began to calm down and God poked me about being thankful for my blessings.
I would be lying if I didn't admit that at first I irritably wanted to know "WHAT blessings exactly? The large ticket or perhaps my increased insurance premiums?"
But the truth was, I was sitting there without a scratch. The other driver wasn't hurt either. My car was also not in bad shape either - just a broken headlight. The other driver had some damage to their bumper.
In addition, the other driver was so nice to me about the whole thing. She apologized for having to call the police to the scene of the accident. The police officer, once he arrived, was very kind, too. Before he left he told me not to feel too badly because as he put it, "They are called accidents for a reason - they aren't on purposes."
Finally, my dear husband came to the scene. He was so kind and never laid any guilt on me at all. And really, after the year I've had and the money I've cost us with my accidents, even if they weren't "on purposes", it wouldn't have been too out there for him to be upset with me, even temporarily. Instead, he rubbed my back and talked to the police officer when he arrived. He made sure I wasn't too shakey to drive home. In other words, he took good care of me. :)
It could have been so much worse. God protected me and He showed me that I had a choice. I could grumble and beat myself up and descend into discouragement or I could take my thoughts captive and choose to be thankful instead. I'm glad I chose to be thankful - it made things that much easier. Which brings me to another truth - God never asks us to do things that aren't for our own good. He's just cool like that!
~ Blessings, Bronte
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