The Hard Way: Teachable Moments

So if you read my blog from Monday: The Hard Way, you know that last Sunday night my youngest son had a teachable moment. Sometimes we, as parents, need to let our children take the path they choose, even though we have (strongly) recommended otherwise. The consequences of these bad choices can often result in such teachable moments.
I like to think that now that I have been an adult for some 26 years, I don’t run into problems like these anymore. But doesn’t God give us teachable moments as well?
Art and I don’t call them teachable moments. We call them those times when God hits you over the head with a hammer and says “Wake up!” because you really weren’t listening to begin with. I guess teachable moment is easier to say, LOL.
Moses had a teachable moment when he encountered the burning bush that didn’t burn up. Now if I heard a voice talking to me out of a burning bush I would probably think I was going crazy, wouldn’t you? But Moses listened to what God had to say.
God told Moses, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10)
This is about the time that Moses started doubting. “What if they ask me who sent me?” he inquired.
God said, “Tell them I AM WHO I AM sent you.”
“But what if they don’t believe me?” Moses asked.
So God gave Moses two signs to show the Israelites to prove his divine calling.
Then Moses said, “But I’m not a very good speaker.”
You can tell God is getting frustrated with Moses at this point. “Who gave you your mouth and the ability to speak? Wasn’t it me? Then don’t you think I will give you the words to say?”
Moses answered, “Look God, just send someone else.”
Exodus 4:14 says Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses. Can you blame him? Moses just wasn’t listening. God agreed to let Moses’ brother Aaron be the speaker, but he told Moses he would still have to perform the signs and tell Aaron what to say.
Moses finally saw that God’s way was best and went on to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
One of my teachable moments happened about 7 years ago when Art decided to start his own business. After months of research we decided to open a retail golf shop, found the franchise we liked, got approved as franchisees and even found a funding source, but try as we might we just could not find the right location. Everything we looked at was too expensive or the wrong size. Meanwhile, I was not very enthusiastic about the idea. I just wanted to continue to homeschool my kids and live the life we had.
In April 2004 we had one more location to look at and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I told Art I was done. He was going to have to start his business without me. He begged me to come along with him just to look at the place. “If this site doesn’t work out, we’ll call it quits. I’ll even take you out to lunch.” That did the trick.
Well, we got to the location and it was way too big and way too expensive and was going to require way too much work to fix up. I tried not to get that gloaty look on my place as we drove away to look for a lunch spot. I could tell Art was really upset. We ate our lunch mostly in silence. Then Art suggested we drive the back way out to the freeway. It was a road we had never taken before.
As we were going around a bend, I saw a building with a For Rent banner on it. “What would it hurt?” I thought, so I encouraged Art to pull over.We looked at the floor plans taped to the front door. The building was the right size and the right price. Still, I was skeptical. Hadn’t we already decided we were done? I peeked in the window to try to get a better view. And there I saw it. A tile entry. Almost the exact tile entry we had seen in a friend’s golf shop and decided would be perfect for our own. I just couldn’t argue with God anymore. That teachable moment had come.
What are some of your teachable moments?