Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Praise the Lord!

"Praise the Lord" is not a phrase I use lightly. I didn't even realize it until recently, but when I say something as powerful as "Praise the Lord," I really want to mean it.

Spyder had said it one evening last week, as a response to something very minor. I don't even remember what it was that made him use the phrase, but it was something equivalent to finding a toy. That night as I was tucking him into bed, I asked him what he's meant by it. Was he truly giving a praise to God, or was it just a glib remark? As I suspected, it was just something to say. He didn't mean it to be superficial, but in the context, it was. He wasn't truly thanking God for whatever it was. We had a wonderful, enlightening conversation about words, meanings, and intentions. I love these conversations that Spyder and I have as he's getting tucked into bed. They almost always leave me in a thoughtful, usually God-centered, frame of mind.

Until then, I didn't realize that it was so important to me to use "Praise the Lord" as a true praise, not a blithe remark.

A mile or so into my drive home from work tonight, another driver ran a red light and hit my car. I was more than halfway through the intersection, and he came racing through, tires squealing and weaving madly. He clipped my back bumper, hard enough for me to feel and hear it, but glancingly enough that the damage is minor. The driver never even slowed down. He gunned his vehicle and left.

I pulled over just after I cleared the intersection, into a church parking lot, of all places. At first, I was mad. How could someone do that and not even care? He knew that he had hit me, and he drove on anyway. What about the insurance claim? I decided to drive home -- it was almost 11 pm, in a not-so-nice neighborhood -- and call the police from there.

Less than a block into my drive, I realized that I didn't need to focus on being mad at the other guy OR being worried about the car insurance. I needed to thank God that he had kept me safe. There is absolutely no doubt about it. If that vehicle had hit me full on, I would have been severely hurt. I wouldn't have been able to walk in and kiss the children in their beds, or go snuggle next to Skeeter and put my cold feet on his warm ones.

My Lord deserves sincere, honest, heartfelt praises for keeping me safe tonight!

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