Roadblock 1: A Moving Violation Gets in the Way.

We all can recall things in our lives that seemed to bring us to a complete stop. At the age of 9 years old, I was happy and carefree playing with friends when my grandmother asked me to go to the store. She made it very clear by the expression on her face and the gesture of her fingers that she wanted us to go to the corner store, which was on the same side of the street as her house. Well, my favorite cousin had a better idea. I did not say it was a good idea! At the time, we may have thought it was. At her prompting, we decided to venture across the highway to another store which gave a three-cent refund for pop bottles (what we called soda bottles in the South at that time).

I remember we all took off running across the street and one was carrying the pop bottles. Everyone else made it across but me, because a drunk driver in a pickup truck hit me as I was crossing. I was told by my grandmother that I flew up in the air and landed hard on the pavement. I found out later that she followed us, because she felt that we were not going to adhere to her instruction to stay on our side of the street. My cousin who had suggested crossing the street was running around screaming that her mother was going to kill her. Another child ran to get my father. I don’t recall her name, and she later passed from heatstroke a year later. My father was in the United States Air Force at the time and had just came home from a tour of duty overseas.

As I recall this frightening memory, I realize now that God was right there protecting me. A Bible text comes to mind: Psalm 138: 7 (NIV):” Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand the anger of my foes: with your right hand you save me.” After being hit, I evidently blacked out and lost time, because suddenly, I woke up in an ambulance with my mother beside me. I don’t know how she got there, because she had been at work. I have heard Psalm 121 quoted often, but this time she spoke it directly to me. I remember asking her “Am I going to die?” She responded by quietly whispering a prayer and reciting Psalm 121:

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD which made the heaven and the earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil.: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in this time forth, and even for evermore,” Psalm 121 KJV

This Psalm is what she always recited to her nine children from an early age to prepare and encourage them as they go through the challenges of life, trials, and tribulations. I continue to quote this scripture to my family and others.

5 Steps to Get Past the Roadblocks:

• Recognize where your help comes from
• Be obedient
• Follow instructions
• Listen
• Power of Prayer

Click here to download the Roadblock Worksheet and write down a roadblock that you currently have in your life and how you can use the 5 steps above to breathe through and move forward in your journey.

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” Psalm 32:8 KJV