One of the great joys of life is learning to see how God watches over us on a daily basis. A couple of weeks ago I went outside to move my car so that Donelle could pull her car in ahead of mine, because I would be leaving early the next morning. Strangely I had difficulty starting the car. Eventually I got it started and we got our cars situated. The next morning I left for work quite early, before it was light. I was concerned about it starting; I prayed that it would start, because I was opening our department that morning. It started without a problem and drove to work and actually forgot that I had a problem with it the night before. However, when I was driving home all kinds of things started going wrong; nevertheless I made it home but again had trouble starting it to take it to our mechanic. Of course it operated perfectly for the mechanic, but he thought he knew what the problem might be. I gave him the go ahead to fix it. Since I was off the next day, I didn’t need my car. About noon the following day, the mechanic called and told me it was a good thing I had left it, because the car completely broke down while he was testing it. Fortunately, they made it back and it died again as they were pulling in and had to coast the car into the garage. He repaired the problem and I picked up the car that afternoon. The car could have failed and caused me to miss work, but it didn’t. It could have died on the freeway, but it didn’t. It could have died on the way to the mechanic’s shop, but it didn’t. I choose to conclude that my heavenly Father was watching over me. Yes, I had a car problem, but it was a minor inconvenience, rather than a major problem.
A few days after that, I walked out to my car again to go to work and immediately saw that the right rear tire was completely flat. I thought that odd, because I had driven home the night before and the tire pressure sensor on the car had not indicated that it was low. I needed to leave for work and didn’t have time to fix it. However our daughter was home that day and I asked her if I could borrow her car. She said that was fine. I made it to work and wasn’t even late. The following day, I was off of work, so I had time to take a look at the tire. It had a nail stuck right in the middle of the tread. I was able to pump the tire up and drive to the tire store and got the tire fixed. Again, a minor inconvenience, not a major problem. The tire didn’t go flat when I was at work, but parked in our driveway; it didn’t even inconvenience Donelle who had to leave earlier that morning and so was parked in back of my car. Sara didn’t need her car that day, so I could borrow it. It all worked out alright. Again, I choose to believe my heavenly Father is watching out for me. That is one thing I’ve had to learn over the years. That most problems are a temporary inconvenience, but eventually get worked out alright, so I should not let them provoke me to anger, frustration or anxiety. These situations also cause me to wonder how many situations I’m completely protected by my Heavenly Father without even being aware?
David Freitag 