His hand is upon us

Let me tell you a story. As you may or may not know, Justin and I are in the process of putting hardwood floors into our downstairs. On Friday we ripped out all of the carpet and the padding in the living room, dining room, and hallway. As you can imagine this accumulated a great deal of rubbish. We were not sure what to do with all this stuff. We really do not have a curb to put the junk out so that the trash people could pick it up. All day we talked about what we would do with it. Around 4pm we were done with the dirty work and feeling a little worn out. We decided to go to the grocery store for our weekly coupon-a-thon. We picked up a frozen pizza to enjoy for dinner and after dinner we commenced to hauling off the junk. We decided to dump all the stuff on a corner about a block from our house. We notice other people had been dumping trash very similar to ours for some time. We often comment on how much stuff gets dumped there and then, in a few days, it is miraculously gone (picked up by the trash people I guess).

So we decide to follow suit and do the same. We load the first trip of trash, mostly just a couple bundles of padding, into our trunk and head that way. No sooner than when we get it out of our trunk and onto the ground we notice a car approaching us head on. Of course, it is a police car. The car keeps going and we feel this is confirmation that we are not doing anything illegal.

Well, the next car is also a police car. This time the nice police officer stops next to our car and rolls down the window to question us. We kindly tell her what we are doing and she kindly tells us that it is illegal to dump there. We kindly reply that we have been looking for the right way to do this and the problem we have with not having a curb. We offer to pick the stuff back up and take it home and she says not worry about it. But tell us to not do it again. This brings we to my point.

So often I see others doing things that are clearly against the rules and wonder why they never get caught. Why do they get away with it? This has happened to me before.

I have a common theme in my prayers to God. As I pray for specific things like... giving me the husband of my dreams and helping to have the perfect job or pick out the most amazing dog, you know... stuff like that, I also pray that God would keep me safe from myself. Keep me from making the mistakes that my humanness would lead me into. I ask that God would help me Not do the things that I should not do.

Well, as I have pondered my "luck" I have come to this conclusion: God is committed to me. He is already in the act of answering my prayers. His hand IS upon us. As we both pray for guidance; God is gently guiding and not leading us into temptations.

For me, the story above is evidence and confirmation that God is actively keeping me from making the stupid mistakes that I know, in all my imperfections, I am capable of making.

God, as I keep praying, lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil . . . Thank you.