Looking Up!

Yesterday we were hit with some wicked thunderstorms in Pickens, and as I type this I hear thunder rolling again outside. I'm not a huge fan of thunderstorms. Jason and I got married in March and at the beginning of April that year we had a horrible thunderstorm/tornado come through town. I was in my car headed home after having lunch with a friend, and I've never been so scared in my life. Add to that that Jason and I lived in an old, old farmhouse when we first married, and said house was right across the street from some railroad tracks. Everytime it stormed, lightening would pop off the railroad tracks and make our whole house shake. That was the end of my love affair with thunderstorms.

I remember being a teenager and sitting, watching the lightening dance in the distance and the thunder roll through the sky. Not anymore. Now I curl up and pray for it to pass.

That being said, we were at Pizza Inn when this monster came through. My sister-in-law said that on the doppler it was purple over Pickens, and for those of you unfamiliar with WYFF4's radar system, that means we were in the midst of quite the storm. Think of poor Dorothy and Toto as their house went flying through the air. My dad said the hail was the size of softballs.

Anyway, after it was over, Jason and I had to head to the hospital to visit a family member, and as we drove, we saw trees across the roads and debris everywhere, but up in the sky was a double rainbow, almost a full arc. It was amazing. These pictures are ones that Jason took.

And you know what I realized, if I was looking up at the rainbow, I couldn't look at all the debris and trash on the roads. I wonder if that is why God placed that rainbow up so high when he put it there for Noah. Maybe Noah was overwhelmed with all the destruction that the flood had caused. Can you imagine, bodies everywhere, mud, everything that you knew gone? But when he looked up there was that beautiful, arching rainbow - God's promise.

We asked Abby what a rainbow meant, and she couldn't tell us, so I said, "A rainbow means that God will take care of us." And it's true, isn't it? God promised to never flood the earth again, and that ultimately means that he's going to care for us. He's going to bring some pretty hefty storms, but in the end there's an unfailing promise that He's going to take care of us. He'll never destroy that way again.

Praise him! Praise him.

Messes

When I had kids people tried to warn me. I guess I was so focused on little tiny socks and soft blankets, chubby cheeks and pretty blue eyes that I didn't hear them. Experience truly is the best teacher, and unfortunately sometimes I'm a slow learner.

I say that as a preface to the story that I'm about to tell.

Abby LOVES cheese: cheese slices, shredded cheese, cheddar cheese, white cheese; it doesn't matter.

This morning I was in the kitchen trying to get things back in order after three weeks of renovating. The kitchen was a mess and Jungle Book 2 was on The Disney Channel, so I worked while Abby watched the movie. I filled her little orange bowl with shredded cheese, sent her into the living room, and I continued what I was doing.

I refilled the bowl several times (and let me insert here that vacuuming the living room rug was on the list, so I wasn't very concerned with her spilling the cheese), and on the last refill I said, "No more cheese; this is it."

After a few minutes, Abby said, "Mommy, can you help me. My cheese spilled."

Oh..my..word

Did her cheese spill. It was everywhere! The rug was orange from all the cheese she had dumped out.

I sighed, went to the closet, lugged out the vacuum cleaner and proceeded to suck up the mess.

Meanwhile, Abby ran into her room and stayed while I cleaned. When I turned the vacuum off, she ran into the living room shouting, "MOMMY, did you clean up my mess?"

That made me think. Sometimes I do that to God.

I make a huge mess and then run away while he cleans it up and then trot back in the room after a while and say, "God, did you clean up my mess?"

I didn't mind vacuuming the rug. It was on my list anyway, and I know that Abby is much too small to handle it by herself and clean up her own mess, but there was no remorse; there was no "I'm sorry for making that mess, Mommy." There was just the assumption that I would clean it up.

Do you and I make messes and then just assume that God will clean them up? He loves us, certainly, and he does clean up behind us many times, but don't we have a responsibility to repent, say we're sorry and not just presume on God's grace?

That's my thought for the day.

This is a life lesson post

On Sunday, Abby got a sucker from her Sunday school teacher. Normally that's not a big deal, and we all know that Abby LOVES sugar in the form of a Dum-Dum. This wasn't just any Dum-Dum either; this was a bubblegum flavored Dum-Dum. It was pink and everything. As you can see, the temptation was just too much from the start.

On the way out to the car, Abby began to beg for the sucker. Being the good parents we are, we knew we were on our way to dinner at my parents' house, so she really didn't need the sucker right then because macaroni and cheese would be out of the question if she was hyped up on sugar.

That being said, we told her she could have the sucker as soon as dinner was over. She could hold the sucker on the way to Nana and Papa's but she couldn't eat it. Mistake.

Jason and I were engrossed in coversation in the front seat when I heard what sounded like little teeth on pink sucker. I turned around to find Abby with her eyes closed, lips wrapped around the Dum-Dum and a contented grin on her face.

I immediately yelled, "ABBY LOOPER! We said no sucker until after lunch!"

Jason took the sucker away and much crying ensued.

The picture you see above was after lunch when Abby got to finish her sucker on the way home.

I learned something on Sunday. Sometimes we think we know best; we sneak the things that we're not supposed to have, thinking that God is either too busy to notice or that he doesn't really care anyway. The reality is that he is neither. He's not too busy and he does care.

I sometimes enjoy sin the way Abby was enjoying that sucker, eyes closed, grin on my face.

It was convicting to realize how much like a little child I am in my spiritual walk.

Proverbs 9:17 talks about the call of Folly and Folly says, "Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!"

The reality is that though it is sweet for the moment, the consequences cause much crying and heart-break.

Something to think about.

Shadows - A Lesson From Abby

Most of you know how blessed Jason and I have been. Abby started sleeping through the night consistently at about 6-8 weeks of age. Life was back to normal, so when the princess wakes up in the middle of the night, we know that something is wrong. Well, last night, we had our Sunday School class over like we do every Wednesday night. Of course, Abby didn't get into bed until later than usual (somewhere around 9:30). Jason patiently took her in her room and rocked her to sleep because we knew there was no way we could just lay her down with all the noise from our guests.

He said that she was dozing in his arms when she popped her head up and saw their shadows on the wall. Apparently, the shadows scared her some. Jason turned on the lamp in her room and she went to sleep with no problems. Well, at about 11:30 last night, we heard her crying. I let her whimper for a few minutes and then went in to comfort her. She snuggled into my shoulder and went back to sleep; all was well.

This morning, Jason and I were talking about it, and we figure that she either had a night terror or she saw the shadows again and became scared.

I was sitting at the table thinking about it, and I realized that there was an amazing lesson in that. Remember Psalm 23 - "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me"? I'm scared of shadows too. I've often been characterized as one who is afraid of her own shadow.

But really, what power do shadows have? None! I know that they indicate that there is something there, but often they are much bigger than the real thing, and in order to have a shadow you must always have light! Christ is the light of the world, and we have no need to fear the shadow if we remember the light!

I heard David Gallamore at Rock Springs in Easley say one time that he would rather be hit by the shadow of the bus than by the bus itself. That stuck with me. Shadows may seem scary, but they really aren't.

It's amazing what a cry in the night can help me remember.