The Lord will keep you from all harm --- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7-8  

I was traveling down an unfamiliar road in Woodbury, Minnesota. My daughter who was just under 2 years old was in her car seat in the back. We were looking at the trees and buildings on our way to our destination. She would try to tell me something about what she saw and I would respond to whatever I thought she said. 

At one point on our journey, she said “Daddy, toptine. Daddy, toptine.” I could not quite understand what she was trying to tell me. As I was trying to make sense out of the word   toptine, she said it again, “Daddy, toptine. Daddy toptine.” She was persistent and a bit more urgent this second time around. Clearly she was trying to tell me something. Then it dawned on me. She couldn’t say her esses. Toptine wasn’t toptine. It was STOP SIGN! She could tell I didn’t see the stop sign because of how fast we were going. I wasn’t slowing down like I should have been to stop for the stop sign. How she figured that out at 2 years old is beyond me. But she did. And what’s more, she spoke up and said something.

I quickly looked up and saw what was clearly a stop sign and slammed on the breaks. The 35 mph at which we were traveling quickly came to a screeching halt. My heart was racing at somewhere around 150 bpm, but she was just sitting in her car seat looking around, cool as a cucumber. Luckily there was no one coming on the cross street and once I took inventory of the situation, we continued on to our destination.  But there just as easily could have been someone traveling on the cross street. While there wasn’t anyone coming on the other street, those three little words, “Daddy, Stop Sign,” certainly could have made the difference in many lives.

Prayer: Thank You Lord for watching over us and for putting the right people in our lives at the right time. Amen.