Though I had a very direct and decisive plan to get myself and one of my children home as quickly and safely as possible on a winter advisory evening, due to an unexpected delay, despite the perils that lie ahead, I set aside our own well-being to first ensure the safety and protection of another.
On this cold 30 degree evening, around dusk, as I was taking one of my children to an outing to meet up with their friends, the roads were fine. I am a cautious and vigilant driver as it is and while in route I became even more so as I noted a warning on a highway message board that icy conditions existed on the road. It was a tender mercy we did not encounter any ice along the way and we arrived safely to the destination.
Soon after I dropped them off, it began raining. Figuring the roads would be more so unsafe to travel on as it grew darker, rather than drive the distance back home, I stayed out to window shop and grocery shop while they were with their friends. Upon completion of the activity several hours later, as I returned to pick them up, the highway was already slick and would assuredly become worse as the temperature dropped further into the late evening hours and early morning.
Along the practically empty highway and frontage roads, while myself and other drivers, some with their hazard lights on, traveled slowly, patrol cars were out coning off portions of the highway to which I anticipated it would not be long before the major roads would be closed entirely.
Before the roads became any more treacherous, my plan was to pick up my child and get home as quickly, which was not all that fast due to the road conditions, and safely as possible. Not wanting a repeat experience I had a couple of decades prior when hitting a patch of black ice, losing control, and ending up down an interchange embankment, I drove very carefully.
At one point, as I crossed over a bridge with only one lane open due to a fire truck in the other lane attending to a vehicle that appeared to have spun out, my vehicle began to fishtail slightly back and forth a few times over the entirety of the icy bridge, narrowly staying clear of the firetruck as I passed by it. Amidst the tense and surreal brief seconds that ensued, my thoughts turned immediately to a fireside message I recently heard by Noelle Pikus Pace about looking where you want to end up. Recalling the experience she shared, it was a tender mercy I was able to repeatedly steady and maintain control of my vehicle.
At the next exit a short distance past the bridge, I got off the highway and continued on my way to reach my child by means of the frontage roads. The time it took to get to them was slow. Once I arrived to pick them up, I was relieved I had made it to them safely and I was SO ready to be home. Well, it so happened that as my child came out, all their friends exited at the same time too, however, one did not have a ride and was waiting on their parents to arrive.
Not wanting the friend to remain by themselves, without hesitation, I set aside our well-being, my child and I, to first and foremost ensure the safety and protection of my child’s friend. While we sat in the warmth of my parked car together till their parents arrived, it was a tender mercy as I observed the serenity of the quiet nightscape around me, I felt not only gratitude to momentarily be off of the hazardous roads, but I also felt a stillness and calm despite the perils that lie ahead as the road conditions deteriorated with each passing minute and uncertainty if the passageway home would be open.
Once the friend’s parents arrived, my child and I slowly ventured our way back home along icy roads and across multiple bridges, including a critical one that was frozen. It was a tender mercy we made it home safely and each friend confirmed that they, likewise, had as well.
When have you set aside your own well-being, despite the perils that lie ahead for you, to serve another whom you observed was in need and after they were situated and all was well, you were watched over and kept safe too?
tendermercym❤️ments~jld
“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”
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