If You're Going to Drive...

So....  I'm glad when a driver pulls out in front of me.  That's right... I'm glad!  Therefore, I'm asking all little old Dodge-driving ladies and all loaded down old pick-up trucks hauling to the dump... all snorting road implements and monster farm tractors... I'm asking all those really huge house-carrying semis and the tiny 5-mph golf carts to please pull out in front of me...  Please make it impossible for me to pass.  I thank God for you because you MAKE me slow down and take a deep breath and possibly even relax a bit.

I'm not a big speeder and I have not had the pleasure of a speeding ticket for years.  However, I do like to move along.  I do not dilly dally...  I learned to drive from my mother who learned from my great big German grandfather.  His mantra was, "If you're going to drive, DRIVE!"  Oh boy... do I remember HIS driving!  His tires would spin and throw gravel as he gunned it out of our driveway.  We used to wait and watch him do it; he was never a disappointment.

And my mother was quite a hunter - with the car.  We lived on a gravel road in a county teeming with unsuspecting pheasants.  When she saw one on the road, she would gun the gas and speed up to hit it.  She could just wing it a bit so the bones would not be crushed...  She'd jump out of the car, wring it's neck to put it out of its misery, take it home, pluck it and fry it up in a pan.  I tell you, it was fresh!  Actually, I thought all mothers did this!

(Why did the pheasant cross the road in such a hurry?  To avoid my mother's wicked tires!)

Well, I don't throw gravel in our driveway (we don't have gravel) and I don't hit crossing pheasants with my tires.  I don't drive like that... but I do lack patience.  There... I said it.  I lack patience when driving.

But I'm learning.

I'm learning to put some space between my car and the car in front of me.  I'm learning not to honk when I'm perturbed.  I'm learning to let others go first.  Sometimes I smile when I drive!  And the biggest test of all:  I'm thanking my heavenly Father when a car pulls out in front of me.  It's quite possible my heavenly Father is trying to get me to slow down and focus on where I'm going and what I will do when I get there.  Maybe I should pray.  Maybe I should give thanks.  Maybe it will be OK if it takes me an extra 30 seconds, especially if I arrive patient and peaceful, instead of agitated from cussing  out a driver in front of me.  Peaceful, patient, kind, gentle...

Father, keep those reminders coming to slow down... and may my new strategy be, "If I'm going to drive, drive.... with...  p a t i e n c e.....