P plates equals probation

Learning to drive a car is a very exacting business. It takes a long time to be able to judge distances and speeds and how to manoeuvre the car between points on the road. Then add more cars and more people and boy does it get really difficult to do our very best. I feel that this how it is when we are Christians. Our dear God gives us so many chances to stay on the correct path but there are always people and things trying to make us miss our turns and get us on the wrong roads.

It is so terrifying when we embark on our life’s journey! Will I be able to get where I want to go? Will I be able o get around the obstacles in my way? How will I know if I am on the right track? We have road maps to help us get where we are going so we have help us get on the correct road to where we want to go. Heaven this way! There are signs for us to read but sometimes it seems that they are written in foreign languages. I didn’t have any help in choosing my path. My parents didn’t go to church unless it was for the usual occasions: weddings and funerals: that’s about it!

My dad always showed me how much he cared about everyone: he often invited people over for meals and offered to help people in other ways. He is still a wonderful and kind man. Thank you dad for showing me to love and care for my fellow man!

My parents came here to Australia with nothing and had to work for everything they now have. Yes they paid their dues and now they are trying to relax a bit and don’t care about being filthy rich. They showed me how we all have to pull our weight to make it work. My brother Alec and I had to help plant tomato plants; pick tomatoes, pick and cut apricots, pick oranges and do lots of stuff around the fruit property. Mum and dad also wanted us to get a good education so that we would not have to labour all our lives like they did! My mum worked at the Moorook fruit packing shed for many hours a week to help make ends meet while dad looked after the fruit block during the winter months. We loved it when mum worked picking peas for Mr Shield mainly because we loved helping her to pick the fresh juicy peas. We didn’t really help that much because we ate more than we put into the bags!

I don’t like manual labour any more than the next person but I do know that I feel happy when I have finished my work and can look back and see what I have achieved. The pleasure I feel makes all the hard work worthwhile. Being a mum makes it all worthwhile! Seeing your children grow up to be good people is the same as watching a crop grow to maturity.

How dear God must feel when He sees us reach our levels of growth! How He must feel when we do something to disappoint Him! Like any parent He watches and waits to see how we (the crop) turn out! Like any proud parent He waits to see us reach each milestone as we walk along the way. The path He designed for us; holding His breath as we stumble and fall along the way. The tears He sheds for us as we wander off the path and do our own thing! Dear Lord forgive me for all those times I have made you cry for me. I am so sorry for hurting you! I hurt when my children act selfish or silly toward each other and don’t realise how much simpler it would all be if only we would love each other more than ourselves. Easier said than done!

Why? Simply because of self: ego! We compare ourselves to others and will always find someone better than we are. We will always find someone worse than we are. If we compare ourselves to Jesus then we will al fall short!

Even God must reach a point when He has had enough of our entire petty goings on. This is what I have learnt during al of my Bible studies. When His cup is full that will be that! No more second or third or fourth chances! Is your time up? This is probation! Your last chance to do the right thing before time runs out! No-one knows when my time is up. No-one knows when any of our times are up! Now is the chance to do something about my life. This moment is all I have and I am determined to make the most of it! Tomorrow may already be too late!

Yesterday is past!

Tomorrow is the future!

Today is a gift!

That’s why it is called the present!