Stolen Opportunities

As I was trying to fall asleep last night the Lord brought to remembrance something that happened a while back with my middle child. He wanted me to blog about it so I hope it is for someone else's benfit besides just me.

We were waiting at our local Warehouse club to get gas. There were 2 cars in the stalls pumping and I was the second in line to be next. The place was crowded so there were a lot of people waiting in lines at each stall. A eldery gentleman walked from one of the other stalls to the payment booth to make his purchase with cash. I was not paying much attention to this man but apparently, on his way back from making the purchase, he dropped some money on the ground. My dear middle child spotted the sight and immediately alerted me to what had just transpired. I must admit that I was a bit suspect to how she could have witnessed this from so far away and being tired I just "poo poo-ed" it off, hoping she would let it go. For those of you who know my dear, sweet, middle child, you will probably laugh at the fact that I hoped she would just 'let it go'. You see, this type of thing is just not in her nature! My DD persisted in asking if she could go look and return the money to this man. In order to quiet her, at first I told her to go out with her sister to look. However, my flesh began to speak to me. "What will people think if you let your children run wild in the gas station parking lot; what a reckless mother!" So after this thought entered and they were just about to make a break for it, I hastily told them to wait till we parked in our gas stall. I explained RATIONALIZED that after second thought, it just was not safe to allow children to look for something while surrounded by moving cars at a gas station. Once we parked, the girls quickly got out and couldn't wait to do their searching. To my surprise ERROR, my DD was correct. She HAD seen the man drop money and it was a $10 bill. Unfortunately, because I procrastinated in letting her look for the money, she was too late to return it to the man who had lost it. He had driven away! We had to settle instead by giving it to the teller in hopes the man may come to realize his loss and return to the station.

SO, why was the Lord bringing me back to this scenario? Many times our children have amazing opportunities to do what is right and let their lights shine for Jesus. They can be stifled, however, by their parental counterparts. DRAT! Their faith is child-like in that it is not hindered by the adult list of CAN'T or WON'T. Rather than encouraging her in the ability to do what is right, I stole from her, the opportunity to shine the light of Jesus. While one of my reasons may have been valid (danger of kids walking around the gas station) there would have been no harm in me getting out to look with them. Who cares if the guy behind me got his panties in a bunch and honked at me. Maybe my family was his lesson in patience that day? It was the "what would people think" and my own exhaustion that became dominant excuses for laziness.

~How can we foster the right opportunities when we are blinded by our adult inhibitions or selfishness?

Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.....

This little analogy that God was using to get my attention is a well noted lesson. I want to see less of ME and more of the Lord in my daily goings on. That He would give me many more opportunitites DO-OVER'S to seize opportunities for His Glory rather than steal the moment for convenience sake. In the business of the day how many God-moments do we miss due to our own agenda and muddling through..... Just my thoughts on a missed opportunity! Love ya all!