I loved my trip with my sister back to our hometown and then on to my folks' hometown. We were welcomed like the prodigal son, fabulous food and continuous laughs.
Coming back, however, there was a slight problem, and it has turned out to be the pearl beyond price. (There...that's all we need to remember to be set free: slight problem or ugly awful can turn out to be our pearl.)
On the drive back, a seven-hour drive according to MapQuest, we early on missed a cut-off from one major interstate to another. We were almost five hours out, coming into a major city which is in the exact opposite direction of where we were heading, i.e., home, before I said I thought something might be amiss.
Long/short, I was driving so my sister thought I knew where I was going; she was navigating so I thought she'd be giving me directions.
I instantly knew from my toenails up that the hardest part of this for me was going to be not just taking responsibility for my part in it, but not dwelling on what I feared my sister would tell everybody...as in, knowing myself to be spiritually superior, I just knew she'd act like a heathen and blame me...and tell all the family before I got to tell my side of it. All that in a flash full-blown in my head.
With that as first thought, I told her she could blame me and I'd blame her, and we both laughingly agreed. Which relieved my race-race, run-run blaming and shaming mind, thank you, Jesus.
Best punchline ever: When I got home and was telling friends, the story was such a hoot that I found myself taking CREDIT for getting us lost...my sister was barely an afterthought in the telling. If I hadn't learned to promptly divorce myself from my own opinion (which of course was just self-centered fear...and what other kind is there?), I'd still be building the story, blaming her.
God is so good to me...and my sister, too, for that matter.
Thank You.
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