Each day my little four year old is a different animal. It is the cutest thing. He'll come down with his cheetah blanket (which he calls his "skin") and then he'll roar or purr at me for his first words of the day. At nightime when I'm putting him to bed, I have to pray for him, I mean, for my animal/son. I am never allowed to used his name in the prayers. I can only refer to him as the current animal that he is, such as, "Dear Lord, Thank you for my cheetah/T-Rex/tiger, Please help him to sleep well, in his, uh, tree/nest/cave tonight. Help me to find an antelope/dino egg for breakfast so that he grows up into a strong cheetah/tiger/dino. Amen." Of course, in my mind, I'm praying many more things, but he loooooves it when I pray like that! If I dare mention his name, he quickly corrects me, "Cheetah, you meant, Cheetah." "Right, sorry, Cheetah...." Each one of my other kids enjoys role playing with him so much as we know this can't go on forever. He's the baby, but not for long, so they'll all play along referring to all his snacks as if he's a real cheetah or dinosaur, cutting up his "antelope" for him, or preparing his "dino egg" that we found in a "cave" somewhere. He just can't get enough of this and neither can we. It's another little grace in our lives that makes us all shake our heads at his cuteness all day long.
As for real life, today is Friday......how many times have I written the sentence, "We're waiting for a cheque today...." But it's true! We are! Again! We, as usual, watch for the mail truck, day after day! This is becoming quite the common occurance in our life. Suppliers are waiting to be paid and we want to pay them! This one customer is very interesting. They get furious when you don't pay them on time, but they have no problem making you wait. Ironic. We have learned there is no cause for alarm even if the cheque does not arrive. My husband regularly prays, "You know if we need it...." and then he leaves it in the Lord's hands. There's that example again of him being my "tree", unmovable in a storm when he really should be anxious by all matter of appearances. I'm so grateful when he is like that.
We read the verse yesterday that gives us great hope, "But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an ACCEPTABLE TIME, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness. Deliver me, from the sinking mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. (Psalm 69:13, 14)
It is clear that God's deliverance comes at an "acceptable time". When He chooses to deliver us, not when We choose. I always love to play God and figure out how He should do things, but I'm not that good at it and pretty much always make it go in my favour. I'm quite self-absorbed and think about me most of the time. It is reassuring to read a verse like that and know He's actually the one in control.
RM is suffering right now with some kind of sinus pain. He always aches from the heavy lifting, but add sinus pain and a little old age-type symptoms and he is quite miserable. But he can't stop. The psalms address that, too. I read, "Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent." (Psalm 71:9) And then, later, it says, "So even to old age and gray hairs, O God do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come." (Ps. 71:18) The point? There's really nothing the Bible doesn't address. God knows that RM is "weary" (Ps. 69:3) and that his "strength" is nearly "spent". God knows he's even nearing "old age" and "gray hairs". David asked for help, so do we. And God supplies the strength we need. Our job it to proclaim it to another generation, to all those to come.
I'm Mrs. Natural Remedies right now, too. I made quite the tonic for him. My son calls it "poison", but my husband claims it helps! I blended/pureed fresh garlic, ginger, raw onion, cayenne pepper and then covered the pulp in apple cider vinegar to stew in a jar in the cupboard. I missed the horseradish, but I will run out and get that this weekend as that is supposed to be in it, too. Then, on an hourly basis, or whenever he needs to, I put a huge spoonful in a cup, cover it in boiling water with a couple of teaspoons of my son's raw honey and then sips it, even chewing the pulp at the end (he smells a little garlicky right now, but it's helping!) This seems to be relieving his nasal passages and in just one day of taking several mugs of this, he is feeling much better. Coincidence? Maybe, but all the reading I've done says it works! I even got my daughter to drink the poison/tonic and she also was feeling better the same day. The honey makes it palatable and he claims he actually tastes good! I'm no doctor, but I'd rather him take that then more meds.
Well, I hear a tiger or a cheetah coming downstairs, so I better start preparing his antelope.
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