Lent Day Thirteen - Be Careful What You Wish For

     From time to time, I hear people speak of their new possessions as having been a blessing from the Lord.  A new car, new job, new husband, whatever it is they happened to have just received.  I just got a new pick-up truck which, following that logic, I guess was a blessing from the Lord.

     I love my new truck.  I personally like a big vehicle.  I spend a lot of time driving my kids around and running errands, so my vehicle is really more like my office.  And when I drive around in my truck, I feel like I own the road.  Yes, I am one of those drivers who has very little patience for people who drive slower than me, or faster than me, or in any way different from me.

     I know this is an area I need to work on.  And as with anything in life, practice makes perfect.  My son, for example, is a baseball player.  A pitcher.  Every day he heads over to the field with his teammates to practice.  He throws the ball over and over and over again.  He does this so he can become a better pitcher.

     Today, I had to drive my other son back to college.  I was on the highway for about three hours in total, becoming increasingly impatient with the other drivers (where do these people get their licenses?).  And it suddenly struck me at some point during my travels, that the blessing from the Lord was not the big truck, the blessing was the many opportunities He was sending my way that allowed me to practice my patience while behind the wheel of that big truck.