No Cursing!
“We’re going to be late.”
I think we start off most mornings with that statement. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t have a good relationship with the clock. I don’t seem to have a good gauge of the time and how long it takes to accomplish the task at hand. This is probably why the Lord had me marry “Mr. On Time,” who is always ready at least three hours before we have to do anything.
Again, I don’t have that skill, and since I am the mom who is trying to get the kids ready, the kids aren’t usually ready either.
Today was rough. We had the usual problems and then a bunch of extra things: a nebulizer treatment for my daughter’s newly diagnosed case of bronchitis, a grumpy problem of not finding the right PE outfit and a foggy, misty morning that makes for slippery driving conditions.
“We’re going to be late,” I announced in the car as we left at the latest time we’ve ever left for school this year.
But then I realized that I didn’t have the right to make that declaration. How do I know if we're going to be late? I don’t know what the traffic looks like at the highway interchanges. I don’t know if the lights are going to be red or green. I don’t know if the people who lock the gates at the school bell will be merciful and tell us to just go ahead.
To declare us late before it even happens is to make a curse, to declare something outside of God’s will.
Is it God’s will that we should be late? I don’t know. So, I ceded authority to Him. “I’m sorry, Lord,” I said out loud. “I don’t know if we're going to be late. Sometimes you work things out so we aren’t late when I think we will be. You can decide if we’re going to be late.”
It’s hard to rest in the uncertainty of God’s will. I declared us late in an attempt to ease my mind. If I “rest” in the “certainty” of my declaration, I don’t have to hope that something will be different. Nor do I have to try for different. But I actually don’t have the authority to decide. I have to rest in His providence.
So, we continued on. The drive went smoothly. All of the lights were green. And, unlike yesterday, no one needed to walk in front of us in the school parking lot, so I could make a beeline to park. Amazingly, there was a parking spot right by the door. We walked up as the school nurse greeted us cheerfully and welcomed us inside. It was two minutes before the bell.
We were not late. It wasn’t God’s will. I’m glad I let Him decide.