Are you remaining teachable?

What is God trying to teach you… about yourself?

I had to learn it the hard way

Life Lessons And Car Washes

I pulled up to the pay station at a local automatic car wash.  The pay station did not accept credit cards, but that was no problem.  I had cash. 

I put my 5 dollar bill into the slot and it spit the bill back out.  I continued to feed the 5 dollar bill into the payment slot and the machine continued to reject the bill.  I needed a 5 dollar bill in order to pay.  I did not have singles.  I did not have any other 5 dollar bills.  And the machine did not accept 20 dollar bills. 

I tried to feed the bill into the payment slot at least a dozen times and then I realized it was futile.  The machine was simply not going to accept this bill.

But now what do I do?

To access this particular car wash requires some maneuvering into a narrow space that involves a very tight left turn and the aligning of the car tires with rails and a track system that ultimately pulls the car through the wash.  My car was already in this tight place with the wheels on the tracks.

Would I be able to back it out of this place?

Another option would be to drive forward through the car wash on the track system even though

the car wash was not turned on (because it wouldn’t accept my money).

That didn’t seem like a good idea to me.

The only other option was to jump out of my car and leave it there, unattended, at the pay station, then run across the parking lot into the gas station building and pay for the car wash with the gas station clerk.

I chose to jump out of the car and run to the gas station building.  I paid the clerk who was smiling at me as if she knew I was having trouble and yet found the whole situation amusing.  I ran back to the car and keyed the code that was given to me into the pay station.  Then the car went through the wash and came out beautifully.

On the way home in my shiny clean car, some mucky sludge came off of a garbage truck as it passed me.  Less than 2 minutes after my less than optimal car wash experience the car was dirty again.

There are some days when life likes to remind us that we don’t really have ultimate control of anything.

Discernment Regarding Mistakes

Some mistakes offer great life lessons and are actually helpful, valuable experiences.  Some mistakes, however, have serious long-term, negative consequences.  These second types of mistakes are, obviously, the ones to avoid.  An aspect of wisdom and good judgment involves having a sense of the difference between these two kinds of mistakes.

Growing Older vs. Growing Up

“Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional.” – Anonymous.  It is helpful and important for us to walk closely with God; think; pay attention; relate with others authentically; and, in general, learn the lessons that life offers.  This will help us gain wisdom as our years accumulate.

An Incredible Man In My Life...My Dad

I was blessed to have a father who was a man of integrity, generosity, courage, and strength.  He taught me many important life lessons.  Most of the lessons he taught me did not come from a lecture or a book, they came from watching his life.  (Those are the most potent lessons.)  He’s gone, now, but on Father’s Day, I continue to honor an incredible man in my life, Luther Marler.