Scratch and Dent

My internet has been down at home and I have a few entries into my journal that I want to blog about and share. Now I am back up and here is one of them. I will try and write some of the others in the next few days.

A couple weeks ago I was driving to pick my daughter up from school. We needed to drive to Miami to a Vital statistics office for an original copy of her birth certificate. As I drove down the road, a man pulled out of a convenience store and almost hit me. At first I got a little ticked and thought to myself, "what is his problem!!". I noticed as he grabbed his steering wheel to get control and not smash into me that he had a lottery scratch off card in one hand and I think a coin in the other. Evidently he couldn't wait to scratch off and see if he had won. I noticed that his truck was older and it had two ladders on the back with paint buckets and brushes. Then this verse came to my mind, "dont get tired of doing what is good". As I paid more attention to who he was, I thought to myself, I guess he is tired of working hard every day and probably bought that ticket hoping it would rescue him from this hum drum life of a painter. It also brought to my mind someone that I had been praying for and encouraging. They didn't understand how if they were doing all the right things for the Lord, would their life hit a roadblock and they would be pulled off the road that they felt was headed to their dream. I didnt have the answers but I did give them this verse. The cool thing about this day was when I got to my destination and went inside the office to pick up the birth certificate, right there, on a plaque on the woman's desk that was helping me, read the following:

Galations 6:9
So don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.

I just smiled to God when I saw that and told the lady, "I really like your plaque". God had spoken to me and gave me confirmation to keep lifting up those in prayer that are doing what is right, even the man who almost hit me. He thought that ticket may bring him hope for his future, but Christ is the only thing that can do that. I hope he realizes he is a lucky man and doesn't need to play the lottery to prove that. Blessing does come at the appropriate time and when it does, we can somewhat understand why we had the valley, or the detour of the dream!!