It was a snowy, icy morning a couple of weeks ago as I was heading to work. I am always nervous on mornings like this in spite of living in South Dakota all my life.

I usually get to school pretty early in the morning. I love having about an hour to myself before the storm of students invade my classroom. It gives me time to prepare with no distractions.

This morning there was a different distraction.

I received a call from our middle son. He never calls unless it is urgent.

He told me that he and his little brother were traveling together in different vehicles to school. As son #3 was trying to negotiate a corner, his car lost control on the icy road and he hit the back tire of a construction truck.

Clearly shaken up from his first ever accident, we kept him home for the day.

Since that morning, my son and I have been traveling together to school until his car is fixed.

At first, I thought it was an inconvenience. I wouldn’t be able to have a lot of down time before my classes started. I wouldn’t have much time to prepare for my day.

This past week, my thoughts turned more positive. Instead of thinking about myself and how things became inconvenient for me, I started to treasure the moments with my youngest son.

The two of us have been able to take the 20 minutes together and have much needed conversations as mother and son. It has been priceless to me.

In two short years, all of our sons will have graduated from High School and will be starting to leave the nest. It has become important to me to spend as much time as I can with my boys.

All these simple, little, moments every day will become memories. What type of moments would you like to have? Once I changed my tune and accepted that this wasn’t an inconvenience for me, it has been a beautiful time with my son. It has brought us closer together as he is growing into a young man.

So if you are in a situation that isn’t quite what you expected, try spinning it into simple moments. Maybe God is speaking through those moments to help you see.

Please comment if you have any situation come up in your life that made you change it into a simple moment or memory.