GUIDE DOG TALES VOL. 21
By Carolyn Dale Newell
What has been your most embarrassing moment? This one doesn’t qualify as my worst one, but it is hilarious.
One Sunday, after church, several of us met at Hardees for lunch. I don’t eat fried chicken, but the smell was inviting.
I worked at Hardees in 1982, when it first opened. It is not a place I frequent now.
The dining area was not crowded. Iva laid under our table, on her best behavior.
After eating, I considered excusing myself to visit the little girls room. Iva and I can do this, I thought. I know exactly where I am going. My friends offered to go with us, but I confidently denied their help. My last words to them were, “If it is still where it was in 1982, I’ll be fine.”
Standing in front of the door, I decided to play Super Blind Woman (always a tragic mistake), and I glided my fingers across the large sign next to the door. No braille. I ran my finger across the outline of a woman wearing the dress. That is the symbol for the lady’s room.
I popped the door opened with a huge smile on my face, so proud of myself. I paused as I stuck my head in the opening and inquired if this was the ladies room.
A deep voice answered, “No, this is the men’s room.”
“Oh, my goodness!” I squealed as I pulled the door shut.
Once my friend caught up with me in the real lady’s room, I told her they had switched the bathrooms, since 1982. She investigated the sign with me. She found the braille all the way at the bottom, and it was cluttered. She also discovered the man’s arms do feel like the angle of the woman’s dress. There were traceable letters available too. In my hurry, I had missed all that.
I hate change, especially as a blind woman. This was one day I was glad to be blind. Hopefully, the man in the bathroom appreciated my blindness also.
One thing we can be assured of is God never changes. Doors may move, Facebook may update, and Walmart will move things to other aisles, but God is constant. The grace He gave you yesterday will be the same grace He gives you tomorrow. Actually, He will give you more grace as you need it, but never less. God doesn’t move. We can commune with Him 24/7. Salvation is eternal. We fail. He disciplines, but there is now no condemnation. God loved us as sinners, and He loves us today.
He never leaves us. Never forsakes us. He is faithful, even when we prove to be faithless. God strengthens us when we are weak, today tomorrow, and always.
I need help from Iva and my heavenly Father. You may not require the same assistance I do, but you still need to lean on Him. We are nothing but earthen vessels. God is the treasure and power within, and that, friend, never changes.
Copyright 2017 Carolyn Dale Newell.
A Mountain of Faith 