My mother’s parents lived in Hampton, Virginia. We lived in rural northeast Mississippi. The two places are about 866 miles apart. We were blessed to be able to visit them once a year during the summer and I have such great memories of those times.
Thinking about it now, the memories come flooding back all at once. They were truly special times. Being with my grandparents was great fun. Mom and Dad always made the road trips back and forth extra special time too.
I guess we really got to know each other – five people in one car – on a trip that long. Once they decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway at least part of the way home. This Parkway is nearly four hundred seventy miles long. It starts near Waynesboro, Virginia and goes through Blue Ridge Mountains ending near Cherokee, North Carolina.
We did not stay on the Parkway from beginning to end, but Mom and Dad wanted us to experience the beauty of the mountains. It is a gorgeous scenic route. Somewhere along the way we stopped for a little break and to stretch our legs.
When we got back on the road, Dad turned on the Parkway again. My youngest brother, John, said, “Dad, you turned the wrong way.” Now Dad was very good with directions. He seemed to always know where he was going. And my brother was pretty young. – maybe about ten.
“No, John. We’re going the right way,” Dad said. He drove on. … for several miles.
I’m not sure how far we went, but Mom and Dad saw a road sign giving the distance to the next town. It just happened to be a place we went through a little earlier in the day.
They looked at each
other in surprise as they realized John had been right along.
As Mom said a few days ago when we talked about this, “As good as Dad was about not getting lost, he wasn’t perfect.”
What I remember the most about that trip – what has stuck with me all these years – is that Dad apologized to John. I can still hear his voice just as clearly as I did that day. He turned and looked at my brother and said, “John, I’m sorry. You were right. I went the wrong way. I’m sorry, buddy.”
Dad didn’t try to find a way to save face. He didn’t look for an excuse or try to blame it on anyone else. He admitted he was wrong right then and there. My dad gave his ten year old little boy a heartfelt apology.
True humility is not something we run across very often these days. That’s a shame because it is a command from God. Philippians 2:3 reads, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
I am so thankful to have such a wonderful example of humility~!
Christ above all things -- Robin
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