red light, green light

FROM "A LESSON LEARNED"
The "first day of school" this year began an entirely new chapter in the Knight household. BOTH of our boys are now in school. (Where did the time go??) Ashtyn is in kindergarten at Centennial Elementary and Maddox is in Pre-K at the Mustang Education Center. We were a bit surprised to find out at orientation meetings at the beginning of the year that Maddox was enrolled in morning Pre-K and Ashtyn was enrolled in afternoon kindergarten. Needless to say, if I didn't feel like a chauffer before NOW I definitely do. We leave the house at 7:45AM to take Maddox to school, leave again at 10:30AM to pick Maddox up from school...then after a very quick lunch we pack up and leave again at 11:55AM to take Ashtyn to school and leave the house yet again at 2:30PM to pick Ashtyn up from school!! Whew!! It can be complete chaos and it makes the day go by really fast. Now, here we are two weeks in to the school year and already my driving route to and from both the boys' schools has become second nature. I think I could do it with my eyes closed! (I won't though, so don't worry! HA!) Anyway, especially on the way to Maddox's school we have to drive on a main highway through Mustang and pass through several stop lights. Each morning as I pull up to these stop lights, yawning and rubbing my eyes, I stop behind the car in front of me and anxiously wait for the light to turn green. All the while hoping that we get to school on time and aren't too far back in the drop off line! Once the car in front of me begins to move, I too take my foot off the break and let my mini van creep forward. With each stop light comes the same ol' routine. Stop, wait for the car ahead of me to move and allow myself to move too.
Lesson Learned? I've realized over these past 10 school days that at each stop light I'm not necessarily looking for the light itself to turn green. Instead I'm just looking for the car in front of me to begin moving. I've totally put my trust in the line of cars ahead of me that they won't start moving until the light overhead turns from red to green. Do I know for sure that the light is green? No! I'm just going with the flow, following the crowd so to speak. Once they move, I move. And the faster they move, I move. Huh. Sure, I can look up at the light for myself to make sure it's really green...but do I? Nope. This leaves alot of pressure on the lead car in the stop light line! It's completely on their shoulders to watch that red light. Once they go, we all go! If they should happen to begin moving forward while the stop light was still red chances are the line of cars behind the lead car would just blindly begin to move forward potentially driving right into danger! In much the same way that we approach the stop lights on the highway we also approach the stop lights of life. In life, as we travel along, going about our day to day business we often come to stop lights. These stop lights can be anything from a huge life decision like what job to take, what city to move our family to, which house to buy or when to start a family. Or the stop lights can be seemingly small decisions like what color to paint a room, where to go on vacation or what family traditions to follow. At each of these life "stop lights" you have more then just the life question in front of you to answer. You also have to decide if you will do what you know is best for you and your family or if you will simply "follow the crowd". Just like when we pull our car up to a physical stop light on the street and we unknowingly decide whether or not to watch the light for ourselves or simply follow the car in front of us, we also have to make this choice in life. Will you choose the job you know is right for you or will you let peer pressure effect your decision? Often, it's not necessarily harmful for us to follow the person in front of us. Even if they drive through a red light we can usually follow and come out on the other side of the intersection unharmed and also completely unaware of the potential danger we just drove through. But sometimes we're not so lucky. Just like in real "driving" life, if the car ahead of us ran a red light and we followed we may make it through unharmed but we also may see the car ahead of us drive through untouched all the while driving ourselves into a situation that may be dangerous. And very dangerous at that! You never know when a car is coming from the other direction. One that you may collide with. Life is much the same way. One decision may not affect us too much. We may never know the potential consequences to following someone elses pressured path for us...but there may come that one moment, that one time that our inability to watch for the red lights in our own lives causes consequences we weren't prepared for. The lesson here is just to be on the lookout for your own boundaries. Watch for your own red lights. Don't get so used to the mundane path of life that you stop watching for when to stop and when to go. Just because the person in front of you is moving forward doesn't mean it's your turn to move forward too! Look up! Is your light red or green? Should you move forward or stand still awhile longer? Those lights are there for a reason and even though we may not understand them at times and we may even look both ways and assume we're safe to move forward, still follow the lights! They are boundaries in our lives that, even when they seem unnecessary and at times like they are holding us back, are actually protecting us from dangers beyond our vision. But what if you're the lead car? What if you're watching for that red light to turn green with a line of cars behind you poised and ready to go? Well...the pressures on! You are a leader! Like it or not your decisions not only effect you but also have the power to effect those that are following you. Being a leader may sound glamorous and it's a job that often everyone thinks they want. But in reality there's nothing easy about it! Nothing at all! You suddenly not only have the responsibility of looking out for yourself, knowing your own boundaries and red lights, but you also have to know that your decisions on when to move forward and when to pause also effect the decisions of those behind you. Is it fair? Probably not. But it's life. As a leader, so often, instead of having less boundaries then those around you, you have even more, because you are being given the responsibility to watch out for those who are watching you. Something that may be OK for someone else to drive through may be off limits to you simply because a certain car is poised and ready to follow you wherever you go! Take this responsibility seriously!! Is it difficult? Absolutely! Can it be frustrating? Definitely! But will it be worth it?? I think that question answers itself. Whatever path you're on, whether you're at the front of the line or ten cars back, watch for the red lights of life and also watch for the green ones. When you're watching for your own lights you'll much more quickly get to the place YOU'RE supposed to be in life and will stay on the path God has lined out for you rather then veering off into someone else's path. Where ultimately you'll be much happier! It's often said that "there's no more miserable place to be then outside of God's will" and really there's not a truer statement.