Scripture

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.

~Psalm 123:2, NIV

Quote

When you are in a rush; give consideration to one question–“What am I missing by moving at this speed?”

~Charles Stanley

Older people understand things that younger people do not. Every passing year seems to be more accelerated. Older people understand that time does fly and that it becomes increasingly more precious. Have you noticed the difference between grandparents and parents? Parents are in a rush; they are pushy and extremely busy. Grandparents have learned to slow down. Age itself helps in this process. I used to run up hospital steps and take two or three at a time: I don’t do that anymore; I take the elevator. I have much more patience with my grandchildren than I did my children. My children think I was hard and demanding on them. I think they are exaggerating a bit, but they insist that they are telling the truth. I do admit one bad fault: I whipped them when I was angry. Seth is the only grandchild that I disciplined in that way, and I never whipped him when I was angry, but I can’t say that about my children. Be that as it is, I still get into too big of a hurry at times.

Last Wednesday night, we left the nursing home at 5:45 and then I decided to stop at Mickey D’s in Falkville. There were only four cars ahead of me so I didn’t expect to be there long but I was wrong. I was in line for almost 20 minutes and this meant we were going to the hurry up mode. I take the Eva turnpike {55} and cut through at Gandy’s Cove and come out at what use to be Childers Grocery on Eva road. By the time I got on 55 it was 6:05 and I knew that I didn’t need further delays so I when into my panic mode. I passed a dump truck on double yellow lines and June almost had a heart attack. The roads are very curvy and there are not many straight aways so I am eating my fish sandwich and driving like a maniac. June was miserable and I was focused on one thing: getting to the POINT at 6:25. Why 6:25? To prove June wrong because she kept saying, “We are going to be late.” What is my point and how does this relate to today’s blog? When you get in the rush mode you cease to enjoy the trip and you miss all the scenery. No only that but you are more apt to have an accident and hurt someone. Haste not only makes waste; it can be dangerous.

I am prone to do the same thing in my daily schedule that I do on the road…get in a rush. I do admit that age has helped in that regard but during my morning pray time, I try to prepare myself mentally for the day, even for interruptions that I do not handle well. When we move too fast, we miss opts to listen to others, witness to others and to minister to others. You p[robably don’t remember Simon and Garfunkel and their hit “Feelin’ Groovy” {what ever that is}: it began like this, “Slow down, you move to fast, you got make the moment last.” Actually, they are talking about laying in bed half the morning and watching flowers grow which is too slow but it is true that many of us need to slow down because we are moving too fast and we are missing some wonderful experiences and opportunities.

Extra

Today is Hawaiian shirt day in VBS. I should have no problem, right? I gave you some bad info: VBS does go through 6th grade, and they had 218 yesterday.

God bless you: thanks for reading the blog. Have a great day and remember to slow down.