confession is good for the soul...

...or at least that's what I've heard. We'll see how it goes...

So last Friday night the plan was for me to join my hubby in taking a busload of people from our church to a concert in Evansville. Because we didn't think our girls were "concert ready," my sweet sis-in-law agreed to put them up for the night in Tennessee. She and I met in the middle, I delivered my precious cargo and began my trek back home.

This is the part of the story where things went wrong...

And this is where I'm going to let my ugly pride down and confess my utter stupidity...

Only some of you are familiar with the Natcher Parkway that runs between Bowling Green and Owensboro. Apparently I am not one of those people.

When I left my kiddos in Tennessee, I took advantage of some quiet time in the car and turned on my iPod to listen to one of my favorite pastors. As I was deeply intrenched in the gospel of Luke, I heard the "ding" indicating my gas light had turned on. Huh, I hadn't noticed I was that low on gas. But ok - no big deal, right? At that time I noticed I was in Morgantown and I thought I'd just stop at the next gas station. THAT GAS STATION NEVER CAME! Apparently there is a 30-40 mile stretch of the Natcher that has no gas stations (at least none that the common man would know of because there are no signs!). So what do ya think happened?!?

Yep, I ran out of gas and ended up on the side of the parkway - alone, in the dark, in very frigid temperatures. And I didn't even have a coat with me! Of course I freaked out, called my hubby in tears and did what every normal person would do - began blaming other people (or things)!

Stupid Kentucky DOT - why wouldn't you post a sign saying "caution - no gas stations for the next 40 miles."

Stupid Car - even when the gas light comes on you say I still have 45 more miles to empty. That's why I wait until the light comes on to fill you up.

And on and on the blame shifting goes.

After about 20 minutes (plenty of time to dream up horror stories of the freaks that could've stopped to "help" me), my Knight in Shining Armor saved the day. Lee sent the bus ahead to Evansville and rode in on his white horse to my rescue!

Here's the lesson I learned...

Unfortunately, I take pride in being an organized and prepared person. I don't like being caught off guard without a needed tissue or band-aide or tylenol. Running out of gas is such a doofus thing to let happen because even though I want to blame everyone else, I just goofed! I know I'm so not above making mistakes, but I prefer grammatical mistakes, or cooking mistakes, or calling someone by the wrong name. Things like that. Not mistakes in areas that I think I'm good at.

So here's the confession...I make mistakes in organization and planning. I'm sure everyone knew that, but I need to say it aloud. I asked my husband to keep this incident our little secret, but even in that request, I saw my ugly pride. So here's my attempt at letting my pride down. Confession...

Is it really good for the soul? I don't know about that, but I know I find freedom in it and I pray God is glorified through it!