Watched over and Protected

The words, "watched over and protected" seem to roll off my tongue in prayer almost without thought sometimes. Yet, very many times in my life, I have been protected--and I am sure there are many times I don't even know about.

A few years ago, I was lying in bed late at night. My dad was on his way back with a trailer load of material. My thoughts turned to him and I said a quick prayer for him to be kept safe. Then went to sleep. A little while later my mom got a call that my dad had a tire blow out. He was safe, but would be delayed a bit in his return. A simple prayer heard.

Just over a year ago a good friend of mine lost her grandmother. I wanted to go to the funeral to support her. I decided to take our truck because it was cheaper in gas and more reliable. There was room for me and my two small children. My dad needed some material picked up and offered to have a towing package installed on our truck if I would save him a trip and haul his trailer. I agreed and the truck was ready to go in a couple of hours. As I got the car seats to put in the truck I grabbed an older 5 pt harness car seat for my son, instead of his new booster seat; it just seemed safer. While loading up getting ready to go, I had phone calls from my dad, my husband, and my mom all asking me to be careful. I said that I would. We headed out on our way. It was quite windy on the drive and a couple of hours into our trip I stopped for gas. As I was getting the kids out my grandma called. The wind was blowing so hard I could hardly hear her. She said she had just spoken with someone who had driven that stretch and they said that the wind was terrible and to be extra careful. She made me promise to say an extra prayer for protection. I did. Soon we were back on our way. Within 20 minutes, in an 80 mile an hour test zone, I tried started to pass a vehicle pulling a horse trailer. As I got along side the trailer, he steadily came into my lane. I moved to the left until I saw his trailer centered over the dotted line. By then one set of my tires was off the pavement and started kicking up dust and rocks. The driver of the horse trailer jerked as he realized what was happening and started to swerve. All of a sudden it was like someone stopped time and showed me a glimpse of what would happen if our two trailers clipped each other. I saw a break in the reflectors and I went down into the median. "This is it" I thought feeling helpless in my situation. I thought a hundred things and then nothing, as I cried aloud my desperate plea, "Help me, Help me!"
I tried to steer to straighten myself and the trailer as we slid sideways one way and then the other. Then the thought came to me, "You're going to over correct." At that point, I let go of the wheel and we eventually came to a stop with the nose of our truck in the oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the median. I was shocked that we didn't roll, and grateful that it was daylight and the oncoming traffic was able to change lanes to avoid hitting us. I backed up and was able to drive my little ones to safety. Although our truck and the trailer had some serious damage, I am still so grateful we were all "watched over and protected".