Great Commandment Driving
By Stacy LaMorte
As parents, we spend a good deal of our time every day in our cars driving children various places. I, personally, have never minded driving, so I don’t consider this to a particularly difficult part of parenting
(unless my children are hangry, of course).
However, dealing with other people on the road is not necessarily my favorite things.
The Great Commandment tells us to “Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” Jesus did not intend for this to just mean the people we choose to be around us like our families, church parish and actual neighbors. He meant ALL of our neighbors, meaning the people with whom we share the PLANET.
That is no small task, but it is right there after loving God with our whole hearts, minds and souls, so it must be pretty important.
So how can we use this as a teachable moment in our parenting?
We can allow people to merge in front of us in traffic, not run yellow (or red!) lights endangering others, wave to people to say “thank you” for letting us into traffic, slow down so someone who lives on a busy street can get out of their driveway and give ourselves enough time to get where we are going so that we are not driving around in a frenzy.
When I confessed feeling judgmental while driving in confession fairly recently, our pastor told me to say a “Hail Mary” for that person instead of judging him or her. I say a lot of Hail Marys in my car now.
And, I also feel much calmer when I get where I am going. Now if I can only keep that up with a daughter beginning a driver’s education course. …
Beautifully put and a wonderful lesson for all!! Thank you Stacy…your thoughts…when put to words in such a lovely way…gives us all pause to remember the blessings of patience and kindness in this world!!! Kitty