SIDETRACKED

Proverbs 4:25-27, "Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." (NLT)

     The other night my husband and I had an unusual opportunity to take our 13 year old daughter out after Wednesday night church to Dave and Busters. We had won a gift certificate and our 4 and 5 year old were having a fun night with their aunt. So we jumped at the chance to spend some quality time with her together. We were pretty tired from a long day and knew it was a late outing but we also knew this chance doesn't come around often so we ventured out. 

     We had a great dinner and began to play games as the clock ticked later and later. We noticed a strange trend as we strategically picked games that would give the most tickets to redeem prizes. It seemed everyone around us was winning 1000 tickets. I mean everyone was hitting the jackpot....everyone but us. We would literally get off of a game and the next person would hit. We must have walked by 15 people in a row that hit jackpot! We even watched a guy hit it 7 times in a row on one game and though we played the game about 10 times could only win 20 tickets. It was about 11:30pm at this point and I watched my daughters face turn from having a great time to a little sad and wondering why we couldn't win. A little jealousy had crept in perhaps. At the same time I also started noticing the people around me. I saw parents out with toddlers in strollers attempting sleep and some crying babies who were struggling. I saw a daughter that looked about 10 screaming at her father and in turn the mother scream at him while he yelled at her to "shut up" right before winning the jackpot of course. I was actually amazed at the amount of people out with their kids at midnight on a Wednesday! I began to feel sorry for people and have a whole new outlook on the reason why we may not have been hitting the jackpot. 

     My daughter was looking around the ticket store as I hugged my husband and in pointing all the sad situations out to him admitted I would rather loose every earthly jackpot and have the heavenly treasure God has blessed us with! I counted our tickets  and the count was 1200 (more then a thousand :) As my daughter and I were walking to the car discussing the happenings inside she turned to me with a big smile on her face and thanked us for taking her on a mommy and daddy date. Then she said, "Hey mom, do you think God didn't let us win jackpot because He has already blessed us with a great family and He wants us appreciate that?" To which I replied It sounds like my Father to me :)

How about you? Have you gotten "sidetracked" by any situations lately? Is God trying to have you see the bigger picture? On another note have you spent some one on one time with your kids and heard their heart? What a special time God can provide when you spend that time together.