Lessons Learned In Parking Lots

It took me 8 minutes to reverse out of, and then completely exit my parking spot the other day.

The parking in my block of flats is terrible on the best of days. The spots are very narrow and one really has to wiggle their car into position. Not to mention the concrete pillars that are inconveniently placed at the edge of every second parking spot. If you're lucky, you have about 2 meters of space behind you in which you are able to swing and reverse and exit the complex. Despite all of this, it should not take me 8 minutes to exit my spot. But it did. And I almost burst into tears.

I was having a really terrible day. The kind of day that not even a glass of chocolate milk and an Oreo can fix. The kind where even your happy songs sound annoying through your ear phones. I don't really know what it was, but my heart was just heavy that day. Nothing was going right for me and I sunk deeper and deeper into this terrible mood that was affecting everyone around me. 

Then I had to get my car out of that stupid parking spot. I moved back and forth, inched from side to side, back again, a little more forward. Nothing was working and the longer it took, the more frazzled I got. Eventually, around minute 6 of trying to manoeuvre my little Brio, I stopped, lent my head against the back of my head rest and closed my eyes. I  felt the Lord say "Just stop. Take a breath, and try again. I'm right here." I opened my eyes, shifted into reverse and moved out of that parking spot like a well trained pro. It was that easy. Why was I even struggling before?

In the midst of that terrible day it took something as silly as struggling to get out of a parking spot to remind me that He is always right here. Because this post isn't really about exiting a silly parking spot. It's about remembering that in those moments of panic and stress, those moments where I can't really see past what's bothering me right now, I simply need to stop, take a breath, try again and know that He is always right here.

Then I found these on Pinterest and felt A LOT better about myself and my 8 minute adventure.