I had a sobering experience today. I haven’t been able to let go of it.
This morning I accompanied my teenage son to court. He got his first traffic ticket for failing to yield for a yellow light. After the judge stated his fine, we were taken with 2 other teenagers and their parents to pay.
One of the other teenage boys, a nice, clean cut young man, had apparently carried too many children in his car at one time. (The limit for his age is one passenger. He had three.) Here’s the sobering part for me. When the boy’s single mom went to pay, she asked the court permission to work out payments on the fine. The total was $82. She needed three months to pay the bill. (Frankly there were times growing up that this could have been my family.)
I stood there looking at my nicely dressed son and realized he has never known his parents to struggle in that way. Thankfully, we have always been able to pay for the things he needs and even when we might have been stretched for cash, he never really knew it. We discussed it as we left and both of us felt humbled.
We have traveled as a family on the mission field to some of the poorest parts of the world. We have witnessed firsthand those who truly have nothing. Today, right in our own community, we were reminded how blessed we are as a family and not to take what God has allowed us to have for granted.
Thank you God for sobering moments.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! I follow you on twitter, would you mind DMing me to let me know the outcome of the story?
I wasn’t going to tell if I wasn’t asked. I decided at the moment not to pay. I was concerned it would embarrass the young man more if I did. I went back the next day to ask to pay their bill, so when the mother returns it would be pleasantly paid in full. For understandable reasons, they told me a judge has to approve it, so I will hear something Monday. I’m sure they will let me pay it, but they were so surprised by my request they weren’t sure what to do. Thanks for asking.
Did you pay it for her then? I wonder, if Jesus was standing there, would He have given her the money? Just a thought.