Four-Way Stop Etiquette

 

I have gotten an education on human nature at the four-way stop here at Boynton Drive and Three Notch Road.  Theoretically, the first one to the intersection has the right of way.  Theoretically.  But when a car crosses the intersection, the opposite two cars are both sitting waiting for their turn.  And usually, the kinder person lets the other person go first.  Usually, the bigger SUV’s assume that they should go before the little Hyundai’s.  Big Tahoe’s are snooty and feel they should always go first.  Cautious folk with a nice car usually let me go first because I have nothing to lose in my dinged-up old ‘02 pick-up truck.  Hey, how do you treat your fellow man as you travel life’s way?  Are you kind to the other person?  Do you let others go first?  Paul said in Philippians 2:3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”  I understand that someone has to go first at the four-way stop, but does it always have to be you?  Think about it.

Help Yourself First

 

When I fly on an airplane (actually, that’s the only way that I fly), the flight attendant always goes through the emergency drill instructions.  I usually tune her out because I could probably give her speech from memory.  But one part of her speech sticks out in my memory: “Please put on your oxygen mask first, and then help others around you.”  Now that may seem selfish to you, but it isn’t.  If you don’t put on YOUR mask first, you will obviously pass out and not be able to help anyone else with their mask.  Duh!  Hey, that’s the way it is with the Christian life as well.  We must examine ourselves and get our own hearts right BEFORE we can assist anyone else.  That’s one of the main points of communion: we must examine ourselves first.  Paul said it well in I Corinthians 11:28 “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.”  God can only use a clean life.  Look at your life first, and then help others. Don’t TELL someone how to live the Christian life; SHOW them how to live the Christian life by your example.

Math Problems

 

When I went to Romania for the first time in 1990, I had no idea how much math would be involved.  When we landed in Frankfort, Germany, our first stop was a bank where we exchanged dollars for deutschmarks at the rate of $1 to 1.6 dm.  When an item was 5 dm, it was $3 (5X.6).  The next day, we crossed into Austria where the shilling was 12 to a dollar.  An item that was 100 shillings was about $8.33.  That afternoon, when we crossed into Hungary, the Hungarian forint was 250 to one dollar.  An item costing 1,000 hf was $4.  And the next day, we were in Romania where the lei was 25 to a dollar.  But then I had left-over deutschmarks, shillings, and forints to exchange into lei.  What a nightmare.  But then came the trip back home and exchanging everything back into dollars … oh, my!  Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  If only Mrs. Buis and Miss Gaegan, my elementary school teachers, were still alive, I would have apologized to them.  So, let me go on record, I should have listened more and played less in school.  And someday, my students will say the same thing.