Week #2

McPIFP Week #2: Drive more friendly and unselfishly

I drive every morning to work and then back to my house; then I leave my house to go to school and then back to my house again. It was the same routine basically all week. But one morning, I thought I had an opportunity to be incredibly courteous. Turns out.... maybe just simply being courteous isn't God's plan for this week's McPIFP.

Has anyone ever encountered those drivers (or maybe you are one!) who act timid when trying to merge onto the highway? They're the drivers who won't speed up to get in front of you or in between two cars... instead, they keep driving slowly onto the shoulder like they're being forced there. This happened to me on my way to work... not the timid driver part!! Oh no! Not me... my parents raised me good and well learning how to drive defensively in the Golden City Missouri cemetery!! Ha ha! As far as I'm concerned.... a cemetery is the BEST place to learn! =)

So anyways... the car that I felt like I "forced" off to the shoulder was a woman driving a mini van talking on her cell phone. I saw her s-l-o-w-l-y making her way up the ramp to merge, but I couldn't get over in the left hand lane, so I tried to slow down a bit. But when she finally made it up there and when we were almost side-by-side, she had slowed down soooo significantly like she was scared to enter the high way. I had two choices:
1.) slow down to her speed and try to honk my horn or signal her over, which probably wouldn't have worked anyways, because she was talking on her cell phone. AND.... I had multiple cars behind me to where I could've caused a wreck and gotten rear-ended. So not cool.
Or 2.) Speed up and fly by her "forcing" her off the high way. Unfortunately or maybe it was fortunately... I chose choice #2. Was I wrong or right? I felt completely awful after the experience, especially because I had an opportunity to "pay it forward", but even more so, because I could've ruined her morning by shaking her up that badly. I kept looking in my rearview mirror to see when she would finally merge, but she never did the whole time I could see her. So since I had obviously screwed up that PIFP experience, I decided to pray for her instead.

While I was praying, I realized that maybe God had intended for me to simply pray for her instead of letting her merge on the high way. Maybe, at that time, she needed my prayer of blessing on her life, more then she needed my act of blessing.

Once again, I will never know, but I do know that for now on.... any act of the McPIFP will also be done with a prayer of blessing for that person. I encourage you to do the same. =)