I know a couple who were driving down the highway recently when the husband saw something on the side of the road. “That was a car seat,” he said. “Was it empty?” his wife replied. “I don’t know, it was facedown.” Surely there wouldn’t be a baby in it! How could there be? The wife imagined a mom or dad setting the child-filled seat on the trunk of their car while they loaded groceries and in their rush drove off with the child still on the trunk. The husband imagined an empty one falling out of the back of a truck. After brief contemplation, they decided to turn around and check it out. “Better to find an empty seat than to read about a baby freezing to death in a car seat on the side of the road,” the wife explained.
Mindful of both the highway to her left, accompanied by not much shoulder room, and what she might find upon turning over the car seat, the wife took a deep breath and jumped out of the truck. She quickly turned over the car seat. A most thankful woman climbed back into her husband’s Ram glad she did not play the part of a “hero” today. The car seat was indeed empty.
No first aid or CPR was needed. No call to 911 was placed. No rush to the hospital or waiting for an ambulance. Nope, the couple simply drove off relieved. They went back to discussing the usual stuff: “What’s for dinner?”
Had there been a baby in the seat this story would have turned out much differently for this couple. A police investigation would be underway. You most likely would have read about it by now on social media. Local newspapers and television stations would be all over it. Perhaps new relationships would be developed between the child’s parents and the couple. And, without a doubt, the couple would be hailed as heroes.
You’ve heard it said, “Do what is right, even if no one is watching.” This couple did just that, even if it turned out to be nothing, a minor inconvenience on their way home. And it was minor, whether there was a baby in the car seat or not. It doesn’t take a special kind of person to see a car seat on the highway and decide to check and see if it is empty. I know many folks would have done the same thing. These are the kind of things that come with ease for most people when it comes to doing the right thing. And if it doesn’t, then it should. “The time is always right to do what is right,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
These little things matter in the grand scheme of life, there’s no doubt about that. But what I’m talking about is doing the right thing no matter how much it goes against the grain. No matter how much it hurts. No matter how much it costs. Or no matter how much your feelings don’t want to.
When your marriage is on the rocks and divorce seems like the best option- do what is right. You may feel like you do not want to spend the rest of your life with that person, but we are not to live by how we feel. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 “He said to them, ‘Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.’” Matthew 19:8 NKJV
When your child has been led astray by the deceitfulness of this world and you feel like expressing your disappointment- love them and pray for them. Don’t let their behavior move you to unbelief. “They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’” Acts 16:31 NAS
When your finances seem to be going in the negative- trust and obey God. “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8 NAS
When you come into contact with difficult people and you feel like treating them accordingly- treat them how God would want them treated. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:43-48
When you sense the Spirit of God telling you to give to the needy, witness to someone, or apologize to a friend but you have zero desire to do so- do it anyway. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One [you have been set apart, specially gifted and prepared by the Holy Spirit], and all of you know [the truth because He teaches us, illuminates our minds, and guards us from error].” 1 John 2:20 AMP
When you see societal injustice but tell yourself not to get involved: get involved anyway. “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” James 2: 1-4 ESV
When you don’t feel like doing what’s right, no matter what the situation is, always do what’s right, no matter what.
“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
In His Service,
Rebecca Hamilton, Founder/ Executive Director
For Every Great Battle, There is a Great Victory!!