Okay, as you may recall, I set a goal of praying for those who seem bent on ticking me off as I go through my day. Just thought I'd recount an incident that happened this morning.
Because my wife's vehicle was in the shop, we had to do a little maneuvering to get us both to work. I was taking her to work, when we got behind someone at an odd but pretty busy intersection that does a bit of a jog to the left as you go through the light. The fellow in front of us, who was at the head of the line, got about halfway through the intersection and came to an almost complete stop, with us right behind him. This is a short traffic light, so we were in the middle of the intersection hanging out in yellow light territory when he moved again, VERY slowly. I was more than a little worried that we would not make it through the light before cross traffic started moving.
Now, this ordinarily would get me pretty upset. But I remembered about my experiment, and started to say a quiet li'l prayer instead. I no sooner "opened the lines" as it were, when I took notice that the car had a wheelchair license plate and that the driver appeared to be a small framed elderly gentleman wearing glasses, and he was apparently scanning the businesses along the side of the road, looking for a particular destination. At last he seemed to locate the place he was looking for and turned off.
What started off to be a moment of anger turned into a moment of compassion for a little old man who was in unfamiliar territory and trying not to block traffic. It apparently didn't matter what I was going to pray for on his behalf - it was the act of praying that did something for me.
Now for my next trick, let's see if I can make this into some semblance of a habit. Keep praying for me, and I'll try to get better at praying for everyone else - deal?
Because my wife's vehicle was in the shop, we had to do a little maneuvering to get us both to work. I was taking her to work, when we got behind someone at an odd but pretty busy intersection that does a bit of a jog to the left as you go through the light. The fellow in front of us, who was at the head of the line, got about halfway through the intersection and came to an almost complete stop, with us right behind him. This is a short traffic light, so we were in the middle of the intersection hanging out in yellow light territory when he moved again, VERY slowly. I was more than a little worried that we would not make it through the light before cross traffic started moving.
Now, this ordinarily would get me pretty upset. But I remembered about my experiment, and started to say a quiet li'l prayer instead. I no sooner "opened the lines" as it were, when I took notice that the car had a wheelchair license plate and that the driver appeared to be a small framed elderly gentleman wearing glasses, and he was apparently scanning the businesses along the side of the road, looking for a particular destination. At last he seemed to locate the place he was looking for and turned off.
What started off to be a moment of anger turned into a moment of compassion for a little old man who was in unfamiliar territory and trying not to block traffic. It apparently didn't matter what I was going to pray for on his behalf - it was the act of praying that did something for me.
Now for my next trick, let's see if I can make this into some semblance of a habit. Keep praying for me, and I'll try to get better at praying for everyone else - deal?
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