A Signal That Soaked In


A few weeks ago I was taking my 10 ten year old (Madison) to a friend’s house to play and within a few minutes of our drive she said “Dad I’m confused about something”.  I quickly turned down the radio and prepared myself to take this Dad opportunity on and solve this dilemma for her and clear things up and since she started this conversation as we were turning past the Church I was ready for a spiritual discussion, should that be where this discussion is heading. 

With the radio down I said “what’s confusing you?”  She replied with “I don’t understand how to know when you are suppose to use a turn signal.”  I quickly replied with “every time you turn or pass another vehicle...uhh….did I not use one back there?”  She with full honesty continued with “no and lots of times I notice you don’t and then sometimes you do”.  I quickly replied with a lot of humility “thank you for asking that question and I am sorry that I confused you and this conversation has reminded me that I need to use it all the time.”  She continued with one last zinger “how come you don’t all the time?” and with true honesty I told her that I gotten a little lazy and if no one was around I wasn’t using it but that I should as that is the law”.

After dropping her off at her friends I started evaluating this discussion and it became clear to me that I had taken the “it’s good enough” approach to driving as I drive so much and do it so often that I wasn’t really doing it according to the law and after further reflection, I don’t think any driving instruction indicates that signaling for turns is optional. 

This pushed me to think further about my relationship with Christ and what were my children seeing there?  What is my wife, those that I work with, neighbors to  etc seeing from my actions?  Are they just seeing me do the “good enough?” 

Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

In the Scripture above it doesn’t suggest that we should have some of the fruit of the spirit or that these are optional but that if we are in Christ then this is the by product that means all of them and with them we are not in conflict with the law. 

As Christians we need to be bold in showing that “good enough” doesn’t exist in our relationship with Christ so that we are not confusing our children or anyone else who is watching us so that is very clear who we have our faith in and that it isn’t the law of the world but that of our savior. 

Let’s be sure we send the right Signals.

- Matt Likens

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