back-seat driver, in the front seat…

Mid conversation with a friend this morning, I remembered something…

As a child we spent significant time with my Mamaw and Papaw in the summers, out in Ottumwa, Iowa.  These were summers of Hy-Vee ice cream, playing outside, trips to the pool, picking strawberries and snapping peas.  I can’t tell you exactly when this specific event happened; I was in elementary school, but that’s about as good as my memory gets.

At any rate, we were headed somewhere with my grandparents.  My Mamaw, true to form, was giving instructions.  “Watch out for that car!” and “Look out!” and “You better slow down!”  Clearly she had opinions about my Papaw’s driving – and she was emphatic.  This was typical whenever we rode somewhere.

Let me insert important information here:  My Mamaw was deaf.  She lost her hearing as a child, so she knew how to talk, but she could not hear. She would read lips to gain understanding of what others were saying. So, when these conversations played out in the car it sounded like this:  my Mamaw would give her assertions quite loudly – and my Papaw would then respond to her, almost inaudibly but his lips moving.

I will tell you a lot of the time I couldn’t tell exactly how he was responding, but his voice was quiet.  And he would say things like, “I know how to drive.” and those typical types of responses.  But one time, and this was what I remembered today, he said to her ,slowly to be sure she understood, “You sure are being a good back-seat driver in the front seat!” With the toss of her hand she waved him off and said, “Oh Paw!”  And we all had a good laugh.

I can still hear their conversation like it happened last week.

back-seat driver in the front seat.

hmmmm.

And I realize that there are times I could be given this title.  So often I find myself sitting nearby the driver’s seat of my life, giving a shout out about the direction my life is taking.  “Watch out!  Don’t You see that obstacle? Shouldn’t we take a different route?!”  My concerns are human in nature.

In those moments, when I’m being that “back-seat driver in the front seat”  He responds to me quietly, with great peace and calmness. After all, he doesn’t need to shout the truth.   “I’ve got the wheel.  I’m a good driver.  I know the way…”  And honestly, sometimes I just need to be reminded, because I know He is a much better driver than I am.

Here’s how he keeps me on track, gently coaxing my heart:

from Psalm 32:
7 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.

from Psalm 37:
4Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.

and from Psalm 128:
1 Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.