Today

About a week ago, I realized that my car had become a conversation death trap for me and my oldest son. I didn't see it happen, but over time it had become this machine that he would reluctantly crawl into that would suck the life out of him. How?

I am a busy, busy, busy mom. I am always surrounded by little ones and I had become accustomed to the fact that while riding shotgun I had him as my captive audience. Every day on the way to school and on the way home we would talk through all the important issues that I would "forget if not mentioned now". You know, grades, test results, things he had to get done. We'd inevitably get into a tift with him having what I had come to think of as an emotional teenage meltdown. I couldn't have anything to do with this poor communication right?

Ugh, wrong.
The Lord really ministered to my heart that the time in the car was not the best time for Thomas to receive important encouragement or rebukes. As I blew it again that afternoon by telling him I saw a missing assignment in his grade book I watched him go from being glad to see me to "let me out of the car".

It's been a week now. We listen to music, talk about movies, poke fun at each other, discuss food, and simply enjoy being on the 5 minute ride.

It happened this morning for the first time! As he left the car to enter his school day I saw him clearly...
Laughing out loud and looking at me with love and respect as I wished him a great day...

The door closed and the words of the song were now audible:

"Today I'm gonna try a little harder,

Gonna make every minute last longer

Gonna learn to forgive and forget

'Cause we don't have long, gonna make the most of it

Today I'm gonna love my enemies

Reach out to somebody who needs me

Make a change, make the world a better place

'Cause tomorrow could be one day too late"

(SKILLET, One Day Too Late)

As I drove home I was reminded of the little yellow flowers from yesterday and the image in my mind of the Lord standing along the path I chose to walk each day...
In my heart I heard the words over and over "TODAY, 'cause tomorrow could be one day too late..."

As I drove by the flower spot, this is what I saw

The flowers were gone... truly, today was one day too late for the flowers.

As I gasped I realized that I had not missed the flowers... I had stopped to enjoy them.

I had not missed my son either...
I had stopped to enjoy him as well.