One year ago I was working at Chick-fil-A and my wife came in and gave me the most tragic news I’ve ever heard. One of the children of our church had been killed in a traffic accident. At first my mind went to several of our high schoolers and then to some of the younger and then she mentioned who.  It was a 19-month old little girl.  The way I first heard the story, it sounded like possibly a bus accident or a mini-van accident – which would have been tragic in an of itself.  But as the day wore on, the details became even more horrifying.  Little Kate had been run over and killed by a 16-year old distracted driver.

My heart broke and so did many hearts in our church. Kate and her older sister and their mom were regulars not only at church but at Chick-fil-A.  My mind was numb as I learned the details.  Today is the anniversary of that tragic accident and death.

However, I want to take this time to remind everyone of the dangers of driving distracted. We try to do so many things in our car, forgetting that these are machines that can cover much ground in just a little time.  I would really encourage you that if you are in the Staunton/Harrisonburg area to join the Kate’s Krew 5K Rainbow Run.   This is a benefit run for Kate’s Krew.  This organization was started by the family to make people aware of the dangers of distracted driving.

My prayers are with the family, especially today – it is going to be so hard.  I would encourage you to pray as well.

When I am walking in the park, sometimes I get stones or small pebbles in my sneakers. The problem with those small stones is they could hurt my foot. They might cut my foot because they are sharp or they could cause blisters.  Either way, I have to pause and take the stones out of my shoe if I don’t want this to happen.  It is important to take care of the problem before it causes damage to my foot.

Sometimes, people can come into our lives that are just like those stones.  It doesn’t matter where we live – or where we work – or even what church we attend – there are people in our lives that are like those stones.  At first, they are just a little irritation, but if left there, they can cut us or they can blister us.  Either way they can cause scars if we don’t take care of it in one way or another.  Sometimes they are called toxic people – sometimes I’ve heard them referred to as EGR’s or “Extra Grace Required” people.  They are those who cause hurt by their actions or words – sometimes they may not even be aware of it and at times it seems that they know exactly what they are doing.  It’ almost as if they were bullies when they were children and never grew up.  Sometimes it’s because they were a victim of a bully growing up and use those actions to protect themselves.

Like I said, we can find these stones any number of places, even in the church.  It’s when we find them in the church that causes the most conflict.  We want to give them grace because that’s what Jesus has taught us to do.  Jesus said in the prayer that He taught His disciples that we won’t be forgiven if we don’t forgive others.

So, what do we do?  I think most importantly we need to pray for them – pray that God can change them – pray that God can heal the scars in their life.  Yet, there will be times that they will remain the same.  What do we do then?  This is when we have to do the things that will protect us – because we don’t want to be cut and we don’t want to get the blisters from the constant irritation.  It’s important to do this because we don’t want the scars that come from that.

So, how do you deal with those whose seem to be like those little stones in your shoes?