Moving Day

Bible Reading: Philippians 2:12–18

It was moving day. Alaina sat sullenly in the back seat as her mom followed the moving truck Dad was driving. She let out a heavy sigh and started complaining . . . again. “I don’t want to move. I don’t want to leave my friends, and I don’t want to make new ones!”

Suddenly, the moving truck stopped at a green light and blocked both lanes.

“What’s going on, Mom? Why did Dad stop?” Alaina asked.

“I don’t know,” Mom replied, “I can’t see around the big truck.”

The light turned red, then green again, but the truck still didn’t move. Cars began lining up and honking angrily. Alaina shrunk in her seat. “Why isn’t Dad moving? No one can get around him!”

“I’m sure your dad knows what he is doing,” Mom said calmly. “Let’s be patient and trust him.”

A minute later Dad continued driving through the intersection and the honking stopped. Then, a few miles down the road, he pulled into a gas station. Alaina jumped out of the car and ran over to the truck. “Dad, what happened at the green light?”

Dad began filling up the truck as he answered, “A woman with a baby had dropped a bag of groceries in the crosswalk. I didn’t want anyone to accidently hit them while she was picking everything up, so I parked over both lanes until she was safely across the street.”

“Oh, wow!” said Alaina. “I bet all those angry cars would take back their honks if they knew what you were doing.”

Mom nodded. “You know, just like those angry cars who couldn’t see down the road, we sometimes get angry too when we can’t see everything God has planned for us.”

Alaina frowned. “You mean like how I’m angry about the move?”

Dad gave Alaina a hug. “Sometimes we want answers right away, but Jesus wants us to patiently trust in Him. We know His plan for us includes eternal life with Him forever, so we can trust Him even though we don’t understand everything He allows in our lives.”

Alaina nodded. “I guess if I can trust that Dad knew what he was doing, I should be able to trust God even more.” She smiled. “And I’ll try not to complain anymore like those honking cars!” •Bethany Den Boer

How About You?

Have you ever been scared in a new situation? Perhaps you went to a new summer camp or a new school and had to make new friends. Sometimes it feels like bad things are happening and we don’t understand why. But Jesus tells us that in all those scary moments, we can trust Him because He saved us and loves us and is in control of every situation.

Today’s Key Verse:
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your Heart. (NKJV)

Today’s Key Thought:

Trust God in everything