To Honk or Not to Honk

I come from a line of road ragers. I try to keep my cool when driving and remember that I have little ears listening and that I never know what kind of day the other person might be having. I normally do a pretty good job, but a few weeks ago I wasn’t successful. We were out of a few things that we usually pick up a Sam’s, so I decided to take the boys after their naps. We loaded up and headed off to Sam’s. The exit I took off the interstate had two lanes that stop at a traffic light before merging on the main road. I stopped at the light behind an SUV.  Beside us, car after car turned right at the red light because there wasn’t any oncoming traffic. B is not a huge fan of his car seat but if we don’t have to stop for too long he does much better. It felt like I was sitting there for 10 minutes and B was starting to fuss.  I was having this whole conversation in my head about whether or not I should honk at the driver in front of me. Finally, I lightly tapped the horn and no movement.  What??? I was sure that would do the trick, so a few seconds later I do it again, but no movement.  We continue to sit there as cars to the right zoom past us. The light then turns green and we move on. I am feeling super guilty at this point because my honking didn’t even get us anywhere, but my guilt quickly turns to embarrassment as I follow the car all the way to the Sam’s parking lot! I kept thinking, “It’s okay, she will turn.” Of course we parked on the same aisle and were putting our kids in the carts right next to each other. I just wanted to crawl under my car!  Maybe she realized I was the rude woman behind her or maybe she didn’t, but either way I was mortified. What felt like 10 minutes was probably more like 2 minutes.  I could have put my patient panties on for 2 minutes! This was one time I was grateful that I didn’t have anything representing Jesus on my car. Instead I just made Arkansas and Mississippi State look bad!

All joking aside, it was a reminder to me that living a holy life means living it in all aspects of my life and at all times during the day. It means leaving it when it isn’t necessarily convenient for me to do so. Maybe it isn’t necessarily sinful to honk at someone, but my heart attitude was nasty.  Thankfully, I haven’t had any more road rage episodes since then!