Two international students got their Texas Driver’s License after they asked me to help them practice in preparation for their test.
Now, rarely do I travel an acceleration lane of the Gulf Freeway without thinking of them. Until recently, to me, entering the freeway and parallel parking during the actual test were the two toughest
driving things to do.
Now, I have a third—driving while a 15-year-old who is learning to drive sits in the back seat.
I’m now teaching Abigail, the way I did Ksenia and Santosh, except they only rode with me during lessons. Abigail is with me a lot more.
What does that matter? It means when she is in the car, I have to ALWAYS be the example. I have to turn accurately, yield properly, follow safely, stop completely, park perfectly…you get the idea.
The other day, when I informed her that she was driving faster than I would like her to, she reported that I had exceeded the speed limit on that very same stretch of road earlier in the day.
It reminds me that when I was behind the wheel earlier in the day, and also as “Dad” the previous 15-plus years, like it or not, I was the example. I was being watched. She was watching.
If you get freaked out at the realization that there are a growing number of cameras (including surveillance and smart phones) in this world, sit down when you consider who has been watching you. Your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, people at church, people at Kroger and God in Heaven.
Proverbs 15:3 (NIV) says, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”
Keeping the speed limit or not, running a red light or not: God is watching.
Intellectually, I think most people who believe in God would also say one of His attributes is that He watches us. How much more godly lives would we live, what a better world it would be if we all lived like God was watching? Answer: the same way I drive slower with Abigail in the car.
Psalm 139 (MSG)
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in! Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit, to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re
breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.
Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them—any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations. See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!
Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life.
...and let that road have a long acceleration lane.
Now, rarely do I travel an acceleration lane of the Gulf Freeway without thinking of them. Until recently, to me, entering the freeway and parallel parking during the actual test were the two toughest
driving things to do.
Now, I have a third—driving while a 15-year-old who is learning to drive sits in the back seat.
I’m now teaching Abigail, the way I did Ksenia and Santosh, except they only rode with me during lessons. Abigail is with me a lot more.
What does that matter? It means when she is in the car, I have to ALWAYS be the example. I have to turn accurately, yield properly, follow safely, stop completely, park perfectly…you get the idea.
The other day, when I informed her that she was driving faster than I would like her to, she reported that I had exceeded the speed limit on that very same stretch of road earlier in the day.
It reminds me that when I was behind the wheel earlier in the day, and also as “Dad” the previous 15-plus years, like it or not, I was the example. I was being watched. She was watching.
If you get freaked out at the realization that there are a growing number of cameras (including surveillance and smart phones) in this world, sit down when you consider who has been watching you. Your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, people at church, people at Kroger and God in Heaven.
Proverbs 15:3 (NIV) says, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”
Keeping the speed limit or not, running a red light or not: God is watching.
Intellectually, I think most people who believe in God would also say one of His attributes is that He watches us. How much more godly lives would we live, what a better world it would be if we all lived like God was watching? Answer: the same way I drive slower with Abigail in the car.
Psalm 139 (MSG)
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in! Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit, to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re
breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.
Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them—any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations. See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!
Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life.
...and let that road have a long acceleration lane.