The Bus...

Last spring, we moved into our new home. Since it was nearly the end of the school year, we made other arrangements for Joseph, our 13 year old, to get home from school instead of riding the school bus.

But with the new school year starting, he wanted to ride the bus home each day. I called the school bus transportation department last Thursday to find out which bus he should ride. The person I spoke with didn't have the answer but promised to find out and call me back on Friday. That phone call never came.

I then asked my husband to call our neighbor, whose kids ride the bus, to find out the bus number. He was unable to get a hold of them to get the answer.

So, the weekend came. My husband made a trip out of town and we busied ourselves with fun weekend activities. 

Before we knew it, Monday was upon us, along with the first day of school. I remembered that I still didn't know the bus number. So, I told Joseph as I drove him to school, that I'd call and find out which bus he should ride home and would let him know.

He then suggested that he would just go to the office and ask.

"Good idea." I was impressed with his Monday morning logic. I'm pretty sure he gets that from me...lol

I dropped him off for his first day of eighth grade at the middle school and headed to work for a busy Monday morning. Which bus he should ride didn't cross my mind again until he sent me a text at the end of the day to tell me that he was in a neighboring county on the wrong school bus!

"What?  Why are you in Davidson County? How did you get on the wrong bus?" I asked confused.
My mind raced wondering how he was going to get home and if I needed to go pick him up somewhere, etc. Then I wondered who told him to get on a bus heading in the wrong direction!

"Someone in the office told you to get on that bus?" I asked.

"No, I asked my friend which bus to ride." He answered.

Oh...

Now it all made sense. Instead of going to the office to ask someone in authority for the answer, he just asked a friend.

He took instruction from someone who thought they knew the answer instead of taking it from someone who actually did know the answer and he ended up in a mess!

I couldn't help but think of us Christians and how often we listen to what people say instead of what God says.

All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.               2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)

We want someone to tell us what to do (and they may not even be a Christian) instead of going to the source. We can end up in a terrible mess by doing this.

The authority in our lives is God's word. It will lead us in the way that we should go and we won't end up in the wrong county on a bus going the wrong direction!

Thank goodness the bus driver was kind enough to go out of his way to bring him home.