Child Safety Locks

Something really funny happened to me yesterday! It's definitely something that I may never live down, but God taught me a lesson that day that is worth ever second of being teased.

Wednesday morning, a friend of mine texted me right before my 9:30 class ended telling me that she was at the stadium and her car had run out of gas. My first, and fleshly, instinct was to let someone else help her and do things that I had already planned during that hour of precious free time before lunch. But I sure am glad that God took hold of my heart and told me to do otherwise. So, I met my friend at my car and took her to Wal-Mart.

On our way there I learned something about her situation which completely moved me. As she balanced her checkbook she announced to me that she currently had approximately $3.95 to her name. My stomach dropped and I felt absolutely sick for her (for reasons that I can't say here). That's when I decided that it didn't matter how long that it would take to help fix her situation, I would do whatever it took, spend as much time as needed and give whatever the Lord wanted me to.

I bought her a gas can and we filled it up to the brim. Finally we reached her car and wrestled for about 5 minutes with the can trying to figure out how to open it so we could pour it into the car. But nothing we did worked. My friend even begun to get concerned that it was broken! In my mind I thought it was supposed to unlock and work differently than it actually was meant to function. When we couldn't figure out and had given up on opening it ourselves, I began thanking God for the wonderful pastors and brothers in Christ that He has blessed me with that were willing to always help someone out.

My friend Chris arrived at the request of my lovely campus pastor and attempted to help out my friend and I. And that's when we realized what exactly was going on with the gas can.

Yes my friends.

It had a child safety lock on it.

That's what I began to feel silly. I mean, I wasn't a child, so I should have been able to figure it out. Right? But I couldn't even understand the directions on the can. However, this realization of it being a child safety lock helped us to finally understood how to work the gas can and how to get it to pour out into the car. It was so much easier than what I was making it out to be!

And even though my story is an absolutely hilarious one, I learned something that day. I learned sometimes things aren't always what they seem to be. I also learned to always trust God with your every step as well as be willing to be completely flexible with your life such as to go out of your way to serve the Lord. Sometimes He will want you to do something else in your hour of free time other than what you had originally planned. And you know what? His will and plans for you (even the daily ones) are SO MUCH better than yours! For His steps and plans will lead you in such a way to bring Him glory, and in all that we do, we should be doing it for the glory of God.

I know that God wanted me to bless this girl. And I was able to blessed her with not only money, but also with my time. Your time is one of the greatest gifts that you can ever give to someone, ad because I gave her my time I was able to show her love and to get to know her better. Most importantly I was able to show her the love of Jesus! All this was done by just making a simple sacrifice in my own life and I am certain that God will be able to use that to do something awesome. And I can't wait to see it all unfold!

But most of all, I'm so joyous that the Lord completely trusted me to show her love and to spend time with her. If God can use me, he can use you too. And he is willing! All you've got to do is just let him.

What does God want you to do for Him today?