I am thankful today for reminders.
We all need little reminders in our lives to help us remember important things.
My mom showed me a video last night that really struck a chord with me and I want to share it with you. It has made me really rethink some things.
After watching this video, I have come away with a few things.
1. My heart aches for the family who lost their husband, father and grandfather. Their lives are forever changed. I cannot imagine how painful this situation would be. Distracted driving is deadly whether it be from alcohol, fiddling with electronics, sleepiness or whatever. I am ashamed to admit that I have been guilty of 2 of those forms of distracted driving.
2. My heart also aches for the woman who was texting and driving. Her life is forever changed as well. She is a mother who is now facing being convicted of a federal crime. She could be in jail for 15 years or more. Not to mention, living every day with the knowledge of the tragedy and the lives that she changed because of her choices.
3. I pray that I may never find myself in either situation. Unfortunately there is really nothing I can do to prevent situation number 1 from happening. Accidents happen and we have no control over that. But I can do something to prevent situation number 2 from happening to me.
From this moment on, I have decided that I will be putting my phone in park while I am driving. It will be on silent. If I want to listen to music through my phone, I will only be changing songs or starting and stopping the music when the car is in park.
There is no phone call or text that is more important than driving safely.
We survived for years without instant messaging, cell phones, email and all that.
Business was still conducted, emergencies taken care of, messages still relayed...all without email, texts, and cell phones. If we did it then, we can do it now.
If you do have an emergency or have to answer a text...pull over. This accident happened in a split second. The split second that her eyes were off the road and on her cell phone.
Here is a great article about the Henson family that was written a couple of days ago.
They have also started a blog called
You should check it out.
Right now they have a link to sign a petition to send to our legislators to make Utah a Hands-Free State.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the Henson family, the man in the car who hit them, and the woman who was texting. Their lives have changed forever and they have a lot of painful days ahead of them.
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