Stranger Danger.

I spent all day today shopping for wedding gowns with bride-to-be and my long-time-friend Alyssa. As a hopeless romantic and the uber sap that I am, I had a wonderful day. The only thing that could have possibly made the day better would have been caffeine in larger doses and more frequent intervals. We went to six bridal stores and shopped from 10am-7pm. At the end of the day Alyssa narrowed her pick down to two choices--pretty successful trip if you ask me. We finished the day in high spirits, giddy, and exhausted. Upon leaving our final stop at a mall we encountered quite a bit of traffic. Turns out a young girl's car had stalled right in the middle of the turning lane and all she needed was a jump. My best friend Aimee stopped to ask the young woman if she needed some help, and of course she did. You see that poor girl had been stuck there with a dead battery for FOUR hours. Can you imagine? Four hours? Teary eyed and grateful, the young woman finally got a jump because Aimee made the simple gesture to stop a minute and see if the poor girl needed any help. This really struck me, because you see, if I had been driving, I would have been just like all the other drivers who went about their way without giving this girl a second thought. I saw that she was on her cell phone and would have just kept driving. Stranger Danger, am I right? I would have behaved just like everyone else. It was growing darker, I was hungry, and the situation was none of my concern. Right? But what an opportunity that gave my friend Aimee to help that woman and share a little bit of God's heart... just like the Good Samaritan did so many years ago. It makes me wonder how many times we pass up simple opportunities to share God's love. A challenge presents itself. As Christians we know that Jesus lives inside of us and we are in turn called to live in accordance with His example.... but how often do we let ourselves and our desires get in the way of living out His love? And how do we make it stop? How do we reprogram our selfishness and begin to live and act as if we were children of the most high God? And when will we begin to treat others as if they  were also His children?