Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
….Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!
….Let the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he is coming!
….He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice,
….and the nations with his truth. Psalm 96:11-13 NLT
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Overall, I have pretty good roads on my bus route, but I can tell you where about all of the rough spots are along the way. One of the big culprits is when counties and townships have to replace culverts. I don’t know of any that are as smooth as the road on either side of those areas. Most often there is a pronounced dip where they have taken place.
Another bad place is a turnaround in a driveway of my high school/middle school route. It is not paved or cement and has not had new gravel put down in some time. Backing into it isn’t too bad but when I pull out of it, the whole bus rocks back and forth because of the difference in height from the driveway to the paved road.
Yet there is one good side effect of the ice and snow we had coming into last weekend, many – but not all – of those dippy, rocky places are barely noticeable! The snow and ice have filled those areas and frozen solid. So as long as it is below freezing, I get a smooth ride. The bus didn’t rock at all pulling out of the driveway today!
In life, I think we can all agree that relationships can get pretty rocky. We just know that when we have to interact with certain people things are not going to go smoothly. A contributing problematic factor is that we know. So, before we even get to the interacting part, we are bracing for the worse…and most often we are rarely let down. Our anticipation raises the stress level and then our interactions raise it even further
What if there were some way to cool the stress and friction that so often occur. Do you know there’s a verse for that? Proverbs 10:12 tells us,
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers and overwhelms all transgressions [forgiving and overlooking another’s faults] AMP
We know God can do anything. We also know that God has unlimited resources of love…compassion…forgiveness…and patience – just to name a few. All we have to do is ask! He freely gives us what we need!
At least for me, the problem is remembering to ask for His help before I step into those situations.
Lord Jesus, may we be a reflection of You. In and of myself, I often fall short of doing that, but I would pray that You would prompt us to pray before we get into those dreaded interactions. Fill us with all that is good of You and may we be a vessel that freely disperses it to all around. Amen.
Feb 7th, 2022, Mon, 7:48 pm
