I want to thank everyone for their emails, e-cards, texts, and facebook posts! When I went to sleep on December 6th I had been contacted in one-way or another by nearly 270 people!! The best gift I could have asked for was to be reminded that my family is more than the walls of my home!
I wrote this blog on the 6th – while we were driving to New York but it’s been so crazy here that I couldn’t post it until now!
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On December 6, 31 years ago, I was born on my Momma’s birthday! She always said it was her best birthday! Yet she reminds me how much pain I caused her that day and every day after that!!! LOL! Looking at the back of my van – I see 7 sleepy children. No doubt they are the best part of me! I can only pray that I’m half the mother to them that my Mom was to me.
We’ve spent the last 13 hours driving to New York. Today while I was driving I couldn’t help but notice my hands on the wheel. For some reason, it took me back to when I was 5 years old. Do you remember those days–when you didn’t have to wear a seat belt? I remember crawling up in my Daddy’s lap and he would actually let me help him drive! My hands were at 10 and 2! I remember thinking, “Wow, I’m so smart! Look at me driving at 5 years old!”
I can still remember the police officer pulling us over with me still sitting in Daddy’s lap! “Sir, you can’t let your daughter drive your car.” My Dad would then smile and explain that his hands were on the wheel the whole time. He was in control the entire time. Of course, I was so busy looking at the road, steering the station wagon, that I never even noticed my daddy’s hands on the bottom of the wheel. At first, I was really disappointed. I thought I was doing it all on my own. But looking back, I think, “Wow! Without my father’s hand, there’s no way I could have headed in the right direction much less stayed on the road.”
Over the years, my parents have sacrificed and demonstrated an incredible love for me as they have constantly waited in the wings watching me make good decisions and being there to help when the decisions I made were not so good. Yet with as much “steering” as my parents have given me, my Father in Heaven is even more invested in me. He made me in His image. He loves me with a love I can never even understand. And like my parents, His hands have been on the “wheel” the entire time. “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. “Jeremiah 29:11-12
How many times have you thought you were leading your life only to see that God had his hand upon you and was “steering” you all along? Isn’t it comforting to know that we never have to go it alone?
26 years later and I’m no more in control now than I was then. The only thing I do know is to keep my hands planted firmly in the center of His Will (wheel).