​Respecting His name

My father always taught me by word and deed to use the name of Deity with deference. He consistently honored this principle throughout his life. To emphasize this lesson to me in particular when I was a boy, he often related the following experience:

On one occasion, Dad loaded a trailer with items destined for the junkyard. He positioned an old refrigerator and washer in the back of the trailer that was filled with items he planned to discard. Then, he headed off to the junkyard. Once he began traveling down the freeway at one point the trailer suddenly started shifting back-and-forth violently. The trailer’s force with its forward momentum caused Dad to nearly lose control of the vehicle that he was driving. During the incident, the force was so great, and it all happened so quickly that it caught him totally by surprise, and he called out in desperation "God help me!" Just as suddenly as it started, the thrashing stopped.

However the force was great and the impact so unexpected that the contents he was pulling were thrown from the trailer and scattered all over the highway. 

There were members of a national guard battalion completing exercises in the golf course just off the freeway. They saw the whole thing and immediately came to Dad's rescue.  

The battalion members soon loaded everything that had been tossed out into the freeway back into the trailer and sent Dad back on his way. This was something Dad couldn't have done by himself.

It's interesting to me that the point of my father telling this story was to teach me the importance of using the name of God with respect by reserving it for times of great need. He told me that if we reserve the use of His name for particularly challenging times, the Lord will listen and respond to our pleas in excruciating situations when all we can do is call out his name for help. 

Remembering this incident has helped me to more effectively honor and respect the name of Diety as I should. 

I've always remembered that story and wanted to document this important lesson, so I wrote it down.

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